The share of electricity generated from gas-fired power plants sold on the Italian day-ahead regulated electricity market soared to 50.7% in October, up from 37.8% the previous year, exchange manager Gestore Mercati Energetici (GME) said in its monthly report.
Conversely, electricity generated from renewables and traded on the platform fell 38.3% in October 2015 to 28.5% in October 2016.
GME said this was mostly due to weak hydro and wind generation.
In the same period, coal-fired generation rose from 8.8% to 10%, and other thermal (such as heating oil) electricity share went from 13.7% to 9.5%. Pumped storage was stable at 1.3% of total volumes.
Total volumes traded on the platform accounted for 24.1 Twh.
Gas consumption for power generation totalled 2.2 billion cubic meters in October, up 33.1% year on year.
Mainly on the back of the sharp rise in thermoelectric demand, total gas consumption rose 16.6% year on year to 5.6 Bcm in October, GME said.
Industrial gas demand rose 6.6% to 1.15 Bcm in the same period, while demand for heating increased 3.1% to 2 Bcm.
Gas imports saw a sharp increase in Algerian flows to the Mazara del Vallo entry point, which were up 137.7% year on year at 1.6 Bcm.
Russian gas delivered through Tarvisio also increased 20.2% to 2.9 Bcm, while Northern Europe gas flows into Passo Gries were down 23.3% at 404 million cubic meters.
Libyan gas imports through Gela decreased some 32.3%, standing at 398 mcm in October 2016, GME showed.
Imports of LNG were down to zero at all terminals but Cavarzere, where 423 mcm were imported, falling 19.8% year on year.