The free market for natural gas grew by 4.8% in September to 1.18 million customers, compared to the same period last year, Energy Regulatory Entity (ERSE) announced today.
“In this analysis of the conventional natural gas market, it should be noted that, at the end of September and in absolute terms, the number of customers in the liberalized market amounted to around 1,182 thousand customers,” reads the market bulletin liberalized gas.
According to the document, the number of clients in the free market rose about 4.8% in September, compared to the same month of the previous year, is about 0.4% higher than the one registered in August 2018.
“After a period of acceleration of the migrations to the market regime, since March 2015 the growth in the number of customers in the ML [market liberalized] has registered an average monthly rate of approximately 0.4%,” said the ERSE.
According to the energy regulator, market indicators show, in terms of a number of customers, a “slight decrease in market concentration” in September and a rise in consumption.
“In the case of industrial consumers, this figure is approximately 96% in relation to consumption in September 2018 and, in the case of industrial consumers, in SME and residential consumers, about 74% and 82%, respectively, “he said.
In this way, the growth margin of the liberalized market “is summarized to the group of customers of lower individual consumption in the industrial segment and the consumption of SME segment [residential and small businesses] that are still in consumers who are still on the regulated market]. ”
“At the end of September, 664 customers in non-SME and residential segments (with an annual consumption of more than 10,000 m3 of natural gas) had not yet chosen a commercialized marketer. Customers still in the industrial segment in CURR represented, in September, about 14% of the number of customers and about 4% of consumption in this segment, “said the regulator.
