The latest study by Medellin-based XM – Colombia’s national power-grid operator and wholesale power-trading center – finds that demand for electric power in Antioquia slipped by 0.8% year-on-year during full-year 2017, while nationwide power demand actually rose 1.3%.

Nationwide power demand in 2017 totaled 66,893 gigawatt-hours, the study found.

Power demand growth in 2017 was relatively strong compared to 2016, when demand rose just 0.2% year-on-year, XM revealed in a report issued January 17.

Strongest power-demand-growth in 2017 occurred in the Atlantic Coast (up 3.8%) and in Guaviare (up 2.4%), XM found.

Nationwide power demand growth for the month of December 2017 rose 3.2% year-on-year, the study found. Residential and small-business power demand rose 4.1% year-on-year in December 2017, but industrial-commercial demand rose by just 1.1%, the study found.