Czech electricity consumption reached a record high in 2017

Czechia’s growing economy is outweighing energy savings in electricity consumption. Both domestic gross and net electricity consumption have risen steadily since 2014, with gross consumption reaching a historic record last year.

Domestic gross electricity consumption reached 73,8 TWh last year, its highest level at least since 1981, when the Energy Regulatory Office (ERÚ) began recording the figures. This represents a 1,9% increase compared with the previous year.

“The almost two-percent increase in consumption primarily reflects economic developments. It is also important that the decline in electricity generation seen in previous years has stopped,” comments Petr Kusý, director of the ERÚ’s Statistics and Security of Supply Department.

Losses in the transmission system increased significantly, recording an 18% increase compared with the highest levels reached in 2000-2016. They were mainly affected by transit flows caused by overflow from renewable energy sources (RES) generation in Germany. Losses in distribution systems increased by a few percentage points.

Electricity generation also rose after four years of decline

After four years of decline, gross electricity generation also increased last year, with domestic power plants generating 87 TWh, 4,5 % more than in the previous year. RES generation rose slightly and accounted for 11 % of gross electricity generation. However, RES’s share of total gross consumption has remained almost unchanged in recent years, at around 13 %.

Lignite-fired power plants generated the most electricity, accounting for 42%. Following problems with welds and the resulting unplanned outages, nuclear power plants improved on previous years, generating 17,6 % more year on year, although they still did not reach their 2014 output level. Hard coal-fired power plants recorded the largest decline in generation (-22 %).

Gas consumption also rose year on year, by 3,3 %, to 8,53 bn m³. A total of 35 bn m³ of natural gas was transported to the Czech Republic, with 99 % of this volume physically transported via Germany.

“There are two factors behind the growing consumption of natural gas. It was certainly affected by colder weather, but also by the greater use of natural gas for electricity generation. Last year, electricity generation accounted for more than 6 % of gas consumption,” adds Petr Kusý.

More information is available in the annual reports issued by the ERÚ: Annual report on the operation of the Czech electricity system, Annual report on the operation of the Czech gas system and, newly this year, Annual report on the operation of Czech district heating systems.