February warming sharply reduced electricity consumption, slowed gas storage withdrawals

While January frosts drove electricity consumption in the Czech Republic to a nine-year high, February warming brought the situation back under control. Electricity consumption fell by more than 1 TWh compared with January to 5.5 TWh, 0.2 TWh below the average for February over the past 10 years. The warming also significantly slowed withdrawals from gas stocks in both European and Czech storage facilities. This follows from statistics published on Energostat.

According to data published on the website of Czech market operator OTE, a.s., February was nearly 1.5 degrees Celsius above the long-term temperature norm. Compared with the frosty January, which drove electricity consumption in the Czech Republic to a nine-year high, this February was more than 4 degrees Celsius warmer.

The above-average warm weather led to a year-on-year decline in electricity consumption in the Czech Republic of just under 200 GWh, and a drop of more than 1 TWh compared with January 2026.

Along with lower electricity consumption, generation also declined, by around 0.5 TWh year on year and by more than 1.2 TWh compared with January. Coal-fired power plants traditionally accounted for the largest share of electricity generation in February, at just under 41%. However, their output fell by 7% year on year and by nearly 18% compared with January 2026.

Along with electricity consumption and generation, the average electricity price on the Czech day-ahead market also fell in February, reaching 107.4 EUR/MWh. This represented a decline of around 18% from the average January spot price.

While spot electricity prices in the Czech Republic remained consistently above 100 EUR/MWh at the beginning of February, they fell into negative territory in several quarter-hour periods by the end of the month. The highest quarter-hourly price reached in February was 240.6 EUR/MWh.

Warm weather slowed gas storage withdrawals

A closely watched issue in February was the rapidly dwindling natural gas stocks in European and Czech storage facilities. Around 20 February, gas storage levels fell towards 30%, but the subsequent warming meant that stocks remained at this level until the end of February. The rapid pace of withdrawals did not continue; according to analysts, it had been caused by a combination of higher demand and growing natural gas exports to Ukraine.

Despite the easing of the situation due to the warm weather, gas storage levels of 30% are the lowest for this time of year since 2022, when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

The current natural gas market situation, affected by the war in the Middle East, is also delaying any potential start of natural gas injections back into storage. The price of gas for the nearest delivery period is higher than the price for the following winter, making stockbuilding economically inefficient.