Primera Página – Agencia de Noticias – Medellín. – In January 2024, energy demand in Colombia increased by 7.87% compared to the same period in 2023 to 6,897.24GWh, according to the most recent report from XM, operator of the National Interconnected System (SIN) and administrator of Colombia’s Wholesale Energy Market. «Of the ten regions of the country, the one with the highest energy consumption was the Caribbean with 1,920.37 GWh, followed by the Center with 1,602.80 GWh and the East with 979.39 GWh. Within the economic activities with the highest participation in the energy demand of the non-regulated market for January 2024 with respect to January 2023, the following stand out: Manufacturing industries with 797.13 GWh and Exploitation of mines and quarries with 664.88 GWh, representing 37.68% and 31.43% of the non-regulated demand, respectively,» informed Juan Carlos Morales Ruiz, manager of XM’s National Dispatch Center. It is important to take into account that the growth of electricity demand is calculated as the weighted average of the growth of the different types of days (commercial, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays). With this type of calculation, the fluctuations that occur in the monthly follow-ups, originated by the dependence of energy consumption in relation to the number of days presented in the month of analysis, are reduced. Discriminating by type of consumer, with respect to the same month of the previous year, in residential consumption and small businesses (regulated market) there was a growth of 11.85% equivalent to the same month of the previous year.