Electricity generation rose in Czechia in final quarter of 2017, gas consumption fell

Electricity generation in the fourth quarter of the year rose by 7% year on year. Czech power plants generated approximately 23.4 TWh of electricity in total. By contrast, natural gas consumption fell significantly, chiefly due to above-average temperatures at the end of the year.

According to the latest statistics from the Energy Regulatory Office, the final quarter of the year was primarily about electricity, with both electricity generation and consumption rising. As regards electricity generation, the final figures were significantly affected by the number of nuclear power plant outages in the final quarters of 2016 and 2017.

It should be noted that the outages affected not only nuclear power generation, which rose by more than 47%, but also electricity generation from natural gas. Year on year, generation at combined-cycle gas turbine plants was 38% lower.

{„country“:“CZE“,“type“:“AREA“,“from“:“2016-10-01″,“to“:“2016-12-31″,“caption“:“Electricity generation in the Czech Republic in the final quarter of 2016.“,“url“:“https://energodock.cz/energodock/get_online_generation_data.php“,“source“:“shortcode“,“start_date“:“2016-10-01″,“end_date“:“2016-12-31″}

Higher output from Czech nuclear power plants was also linked to higher electricity exports – the system balance reached 3.7 TWh in the final quarter. The most significant increase in the system balance came in October, when it was more than double its year-earlier level.

The link to nuclear power generation is also apparent from the fact that in October 2016, nuclear power plants generated only approximately 1,500 MW for two weeks. By contrast, in October last year, nuclear plant output remained stable at around 3.5 GW. In the fourth quarter of last year, Czech nuclear power plants even reached full capacity after more than 950 days.

{„country“:“CZE“,“type“:“AREA“,“from“:“2017-10-01″,“to“:“2017-12-31″,“caption“:“Electricity generation in the Czech Republic in the final quarter of 2017.“,“url“:“https://energodock.cz/energodock/get_online_generation_data.php“,“source“:“shortcode“,“start_date“:“2017-10-01″,“end_date“:“2017-12-31″}

Electricity consumption also recorded a slight increase. It rose to a total of 19.6 TWh, representing an increase of 0.2%.

After a long period, the installed capacity of conventional power plants in Czechia also rose significantly. The 660 MW increase resulted from the start of trial operation at the supercritical unit at the Ledvice power plant.

Significantly less natural gas consumed

The statistics for natural gas consumption showed the opposite trend. Its consumption in the Czech Republic fell by more than 8% year on year to 28 611 GWh, with lower consumption recorded in all three months of the quarter.

According to Energy Regulatory Office statistics, the reason was likely the higher average temperature, which in the final quarter of last year was 1.5 °C above the long-term average.  However, even after adjusting gas consumption for comparable temperature conditions, consumption fell by 3.2%.