Figures from EirGrid, which runs the electricity transmission system, show that the economic recession continued to affect electricity demand in October.
Demand in October was down 7.5% on the same month last year, while usage is down 5.9% in the first ten months of this year compared with a year earlier.
Earlier this year, Eirgrid's CEO Dermot Byrne told the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Change that Eirgrid was expecting a drop of between 4% and 5% for the full year.
Separate shipping and port statistics published by the Irish Maritime Development Office indicate that the pace of the decline in shipping traffic volume continued to ease during the third quarter of 2009. Despite this, the sector has recorded its seventh consecutive quarter of traffic volume decline.
Lift-on/lift-off (lo/lo) traffic fell by 20% in the third quarter compared with a year earlier, while roll-on/roll-off (ro/ro) traffic was down 8%.
