Monthly Electricity Statistics

In March 2024, the total net electricity production in total OECD reached 883.7 TWh, decreasing by 0.3% compared to the same period last year. On a year-to-date basis, total net electricity production increased by 2.5% in the first quarter of 2024.

Electricity generation from fossil fuels amounted to 394.5 TWh in March 2024, marking a decline of 4.6% compared to March 2023. This reduction was largely driven by lower electricity output from coal, which witnessed a 10.2% year-on-year decrease, followed by gas with a decrease of 1.9% y-o-y¹. The decrease in coal-fired electricity generation was most significant in the OECD Americas, experiencing a19.6% y-o-y decline, followed by OECD Europe (-13.5% y-o-y). Conversely, OECD Asia-Oceania registered an increase of 7.2% y-o-y in electricity generated from fossil fuels, mainly driven by natural gas (+8.2% y-o-y). Overall, fossil fuels accounted for 44.6% of the electricity mix.

Electricity production from renewable sources increased by 4.6% y-o-y to 340.7 TWh in March 2024. This growth was primarily driven by increased electricity generation from solar (+16.7% y-o-y) and hydro (+5.7% y-o-y) power, with OECD Europe leading the trend with a 7.9% y-o-y overall increase. Wind power generation experienced a drop of 1.4% year-on-year, driven by decreased output in OECD Europe (-8.8% y-o-y), due to wind conditions. Conversely, OECD Asia Oceania and the OECD Americas witnessed increased output in wind power generation by 33.2% y-o-y and 4.8% y-o-y, respectively. Solar power generation continued its upward trend, with significant increases observed in the OECD Americas (+23.8% y-o-y) and in OECD Europe (+20.1% y-o-y). Overall, electricity generated from renewable sources increased by 6.7% y-t-d² during the first quarter of 2024 and, in March 2024, it represented 38.5% of the OECD electricity mix.

Nuclear electricity production reached 146.0 TWh in March 2024, reflecting a 1.0% increase compared to the same month last year. This growth was attributable to increased nuclear output in OECD Asia Oceania, notably with Japan’s output increasing by 26.2% y-o-y or 1.4 TWh. Overall, nuclear power contributed 16.5% to the OECD electricity mix.

In India, total net electricity production amounted to 155.4 TWh in March 2024, up by 6.6% on a year-on-year basis. Over the first quarter of 2024, total electricity output increased by 5.3% or 22.8 TWh compared to the same period last year. Most of the additional generation originated from coal power plants (+7.9% y-t-d), while renewables dropped by 7.0% y-t-d, mainly because of significantly lower hydropower output (-20.3% y-t-d). This led to coal providing around 76.5% of the country’s total electricity generation over the first three months of 2024, reverting to the same levels observed in Q1-2021 and hence breaking the downward trend observed for the same periods in 2022 and in 2023.