Energy consumption has fallen slightly
Primary energy consumption in Germany fell slightly in the first three months of this year. The Working Group on Energy Balances (AG Energiebilanzen) estimates a decrease of 1.7 % to 3,059 PJ or 104.4 Mtce compared with the first three months of the previous year.
According to AG Energiebilanzen, the main reason for the downward trend in consumption is the continuing economic slump: although total gross domestic product grew by 0.5 % in the first quarter of 2026, production in particularly energy-intensive sectors of the economy fell significantly once again. This trend was offset by a rise in consumption in the space heating market due to the sometimes very cold weather in January.
AG Energiebilanzen suspects that the significant fall in energy import prices in the first quarter of 2026 could also have had a consumption-boosting effect. However, due to the closure of the sea route through the Strait of Hormuz and the sharp rise in crude oil and natural gas prices that began in early March, this effect did not materialise.
AG Energiebilanzen points out that the trend in primary energy consumption is also influenced by statistical effects. One such effect arises from shifts in the energy mix.
As significantly more electricity was generated from renewable sources in the first quarter of the current year, this resulted in a calculated saving of primary energy. Under international conventions, renewable energies are assessed as having an efficiency of 100 % when used in electricity generation. In the same quarter of the previous year, a contrary effect had occurred as a result of low wind power generation.
Adjusted for the consumption-increasing effect of cooler weather compared with the same period last year, primary energy consumption would, according to calculations by AG Energiebilanzen, have actually fallen by 2.2 %.
Mineral oil consumption fell by 5 % in the first three months of this year. Petrol consumption fell slightly by 0.5 %, whilst demand for diesel fell by around 5 %. Deliveries of crude petrol, primarily to the chemical industry, fell by almost 2 %, mainly due to economic factors. Aviation fuel consumption fell by 5.5 % and sales of light heating oil recorded a decline of just over 10 %. It appears that consumers did not take advantage of the relatively low prices in January and February to top up their heating oil stocks and were caught off guard in March by the drastic price rises, to which they reacted with marked reluctance to buy.
In the first quarter of 2026, slightly less natural gas was consumed than in the first quarter of the previous year (down 1.4 %). Increases in consumption for space heating and in electricity and district heating generation were offset by declines in industrial consumption.
Consumption of hard coal rose by 3.5 % in the first three months. Whilst the use of hard coal in power stations fell by 3.9 %, deliveries to the iron and steel industry increased by 6.5 %.
Lignite consumption fell by just over 7 % in the first quarter. Production declined by a similar margin. The decline is attributable not only to the ongoing decommissioning of power plant capacity as part of the coal phase-out, but also to significantly higher electricity generation from wind energy, to whose volatile feed-in the lignite-fired power stations responded in line with demand.
In the first quarter of 2026, renewable energy saw an overall increase of 6.6 % compared with the same period last year. A key factor in this development was a 28 % rise in wind power generation compared with the extremely windless quarter of the previous year. Solar power generation increased by 3 %. The cooler weather also led to greater use of renewable energy for heating purposes (up 4 %), whilst sales of biofuels declined (down 2 %).
In the first quarter of 2026, for the first time since 2023, more electricity flowed from Germany to other countries than in the opposite direction. Electricity exports rose by 20.6 % to 19.5 bn kWh, whilst electricity imports fell by 15.9 % to 16.0 bn kWh.
According to rough calculations by AG Energiebilanzen, energy-related COâ‚‚ emissions fell by around 2.5 % compared with the same quarter of the previous year, corresponding to a reduction of approximately 4.5 Mt. (AG Energiebilanzen / MRG)
