Morocco’s Electricity Production Drops 4.1% in 2020 Amid Pandemic

The electricity production sector, like many other sectors, has been severely affected by the coronavirus health crisis that marked the year 2020. In its latest economic note published in January 2021, the Directorate of the Treasury and External Finance (DTFE) of the Ministry of Finance indicated that local electricity production fell by 4.1% at the end of 2020 against an increase of 17.2% the previous year.

Due to the adverse effects of the pandemic, the production of the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) fell by 13.8%. According to the Office, electricity demand fell by -1.4% at the end of 2020. Electricity consumption at very high and high voltage, on the other hand, fell by -5.4%, that of electricity distributed to municipal utilities by -4.8% and that of medium voltage consumption by -0.4%.

The DTFE note also addressed electricity exchanges, specifying that the balance of energy exchanges with Algeria and Spain fell by 125%. Net called energy, for its part, fell by 1.2%.

It should be noted that in 2018, Morocco had bought electricity for 2 billion dirhams in the form of imports from Spain, before becoming an exporter of electricity to Spain in 2019.