Czechs consumed more electricity and gas this year, new ERO data show

Energy consumption in Czechia is rising this year. In the first half of the year, Czechs increased their electricity consumption by 2.8 percent and gas consumption by 3.3 percent year on year. Electricity generation also rose alongside this. Czechia therefore remains a net exporter of electricity, with exports exceeding imports by 3.8 terawatt-hours (TWh). Gas transit through Czech territory also increased significantly. This follows from today's report by the Energy Regulatory Office (ERÚ).

Electricity consumption in the first half of the year thus rose to 31 TWh. According to ERÚ statistics, the increase was evident in all calendar months, reaching its highest year-on-year level of 7.3 percent in January. Households were the main driver of consumption, increasing their offtake by 5.3 percent. However, the authority also recorded higher consumption among other customer categories.

Electricity generation also rose year on year in the first half of the year. Net output increased by 2.6 percent to 37.3 TWh. Compared with last year, pumped-storage hydropower plants in particular generated more electricity, with output up 32.8 percent, as did combined-cycle gas power plants, where generation grew by 28.1 percent. Solar power generation also increased. By contrast, hydropower plants, wind power plants and nuclear power plants recorded lower output.

The total installed capacity of power plants connected to the domestic electricity system changed only marginally, declining by 0.2 percent year on year. However, according to the ERÚ, the energy transition is changing the composition of the generation mix. While, for example, the installed capacity of photovoltaic power plants increased by 9.6 percent over the past 12 months, and capacity also rose at gas-fired and combustion power plants, it fell by 6.5 percent at steam power plants.

Gas consumption is also growing. Actual consumption rose by 3.3 percent year on year, or by 1.4 percent after adjustment for deviations from the long-term temperature norm. Although average temperatures in the first half of the year were generally above the long-term temperature norm, adjusted consumption was affected, according to the authority, by the colder-than-average months of January and April, which required more heating.

By contrast, natural gas flows into the domestic gas system fell by 6.2 percent year on year in the first half of the year, to 3.7 billion cubic metres. According to the ERÚ, the decline was primarily due to slower filling of storage facilities compared with the previous year. International transit through the Czech Republic, on the other hand, rose sharply. In the first half of the year, 631 million cubic metres of gas flowed out of the domestic gas system, nearly six times the volume recorded in the same period last year. Despite this significant increase, international transit has still not approached the levels common before the start of the war in Ukraine, which redrew the map of European gas flows.