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According to a recent report by the Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO)., total electricity consumption increased by 3.3% in South Korea to 563 TWh in 2018. The highest growth has been driven by the residential sector that has recorded a 6.3% rise to 73 TWh, mainly due to a heat wave in the summer of 2018 that spurred air conditioning use. However, households only accounted for 13% of total electricity demand, while the industrial sector representing half of the consumption (279 TWh, i.e. 2.5% more than in 2017).

Electricity consumption in South Korea has been growing steadily since 2000, doubling from 263 TWh to 563 TWh in 2018. The electricity consumption of the industrial sector rose by 86% since 2000, while demand doubled in the residential sector and grew 2.6-fold in the services sector.

The Federal Supreme Court of Brazil has issued an order to prevent state-run oil and gas company Petrobras to sell some major subsidiaries, considering that the sale of those assets should be carried out through an auction, after Congressional approval. …

German energy group Uniper has sold its 48.24% stake in OLT Offshore LNG Toscana (Italy) to Australian fund First State Investments for about €400m. The transaction is expected to result in net proceeds of around €340m. Other shareholders are IREN Group (49.07%) and Golar LNG (2.69%). …

The Indian government has prepared a framework to auction power purchase agreements (PPAs) with related coal supply from state-owned coal mining company Coal India Ltd (CIL) and plans to launch a 2,500 MW power supply capacity tender for three years.

Mexico’s capital city has launched its «Solar City» programme, which aims to install 350 MW of solar PV capacity by 2024. The programme plans 150 MW of PV projects of 500 kWp and more, including a 25 MW car park rooftop. It plans to develop 200 MW of solar projects up to 500 kWp, including 100 MW for around 10,000 small and medium entreprises (SMEs) and another 100 MW for SMEs and households.

The latest wind-solar hybrid auction led by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to develop up to 1,200 MW of renewable power projects in India failed to raise interest. Only two companies took part to the auction. Indian independent power producer Adani won 600 MW at INR 2.69/kWh (US$3.9c/kWh), while Renew Power was awarded 120 MW at INR 2.7/kWh.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Jordan expects renewable power capacity to increase by nearly 1.3 GW by 2021, from around 1 GW in 2018. Renewable capacity should then increase to nearly 2.4 GW by 2021, covering 20% of the forecast capacity by this date, and thus achieving the 2025 target ahead of schedule.

Compagnie de l’Engineering, de l’Energie et du Gaz (CEEG), the subsidiary of Algerian power utility Sonelgaz in charge of the construction of the 1,398 MW Bellara CCGT power project in El Milia, expects to commission two gas turbines by October 2019.