Overall electricity demand in Greece is expected to rebound to record levels reached in 2008, when the ongoing recession began taking affect, around 2022, a ten-year study covering 2019 to 2028 published by IPTO, the power grid operator, has indicated.

Electricity demand is seen rising at an average rate of 1.21 percent over the next decade, the study showed, which is much lower than the 2.17 percent average growth rate registered between 2000 and 2010. Growth rates in previous decades were far higher.

In 2008, the beginning of the ongoing Greek recession, electricity demand totalled 56.3 TWh, a record high and 1.11 percent increase compared to the previous year.

In 2009, electricity demand dropped by a considerable 5.01 percent compared to 2008, which was primarily attributed to a 20.19 percent drop in demand by the industrial sector.

Since 2010, electricity demand has fallen moderately each year except for 2015, when demand increased by 2.2 percent compared to the previous year.

In 2016, total electricity demand reached 51,212 GWh, 9 percent lower than the figure registered in 2008 and 0.28 percent lower compared to the total in 2015.

Data accumulated so far for 2017 indicates a 2.4 percent increase in electricity demand during the year’s ten-month period compared to the equivalent period in 2015.