據路透社2023年7月21日馬德里報道，西班牙國家天然氣協會（Sedigas）日前在馬德里表示，西班牙不得不求助于所有適用的天然氣發電廠，以應對最近幾天高溫引發不斷飆升的電力需求。

和歐洲其他許多國家一樣，西班牙也遭受了熱浪的襲擊，氣溫已經超過了40攝氏度(104華氏度)。由于西班牙民眾啟用空調來應對高溫，電力需求也隨之飆升。

Sedigas表示，7月25日，當這些天然氣發電廠的發電量占到西班牙總發電量的30%時，“系統運營商不得不動用所有可用的天然氣生產裝置來滿足需求”。

這些被稱為聯合循環發電廠的燃氣發電廠，在夜間早些時候亦即晚上10時左右，發揮著重要的作用，那時電力需求仍然高企，但太陽能發電廠的貢獻很小。

Sedigas表示，在6月1日至7月19日期間，天然氣發電廠生產了西班牙大約22%的電力。去年，這些燃氣發電廠生產了全國近四分之一的電力。

西班牙最大的連鎖百貨公司之一的英格列斯百貨公司（El Corte inglsams）本周早些時候表示，空調設備的銷量大幅上升，人們對寵物冷卻墊的興趣也有所增加。

李峻 譯自 路透社

原文如下：

Spain activates all its gas plants to cope with heatwave

Spain had to resort to all available gas plants to cope with growing electricity demand triggered by the scorching temperatures in recent days, industry association Sedigas said on Thursday.

The country, like many others, has been hammered by a heatwave that has pushed temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). As Spaniards turned to air conditioning to tackle high temperatures, electricity demand went up.

On Tuesday, when these plants produced around 30% of the overall electricity, "the system operator had to resort to all available natural gas production units to be able to meet the demand," Sedigas said.

These plants, known as combined cycle power plants, play an important role in particular in the early hours of the night, at around 10 p.m., when demand is still high but the contribution of solar plants is minimal.

Between June 1 and July 19, Natural gas plants produced around 22% of the country's electricity, Sedigas said. Last year, these pants produced almost a fourth of the country's electricity.

El Corte Inglés, one of Spain's largest department store chains, said earlier this week that sales of air conditioning units had jumped, as had interest in cooling pads for pets.