January cold snap pushes electricity consumption to a 9-year high, generation driven mainly by gas
January electricity consumption in the Czech Republic was the highest since 2017 due to cold weather. It rose by nearly 8 % year on year, exceeding 6.5 TWh. It was covered primarily by lignite-fired power plants and nuclear sources. However, the largest year-on-year increase in generation was recorded by natural gas-fired power plants, whose output rose by nearly 80 % to 832 GWh. This follows from data available on Energostat.
Cold weather in January, which was according to data published on the website of Czech market operator OTE, a.s. more than 3 degrees Celsius colder than last January and around 1.5 degrees Celsius below the normal temperature for January, led to higher electricity consumption in the Czech Republic. According to data published on Energostat, electricity consumption in the Czech Republic rose by nearly 8 % year on year, representing the highest monthly consumption since January 2017.
Lignite-fired and nuclear power plants traditionally contributed the most to covering high January electricity consumption. Electricity generation from nuclear power plants was virtually unchanged year on year at just under 2.6 TWh. Lignite-fired generation rose by nearly 0.2 TWh year on year to 3.1 TWh.
The largest year-on-year increase in generation was recorded by natural gas-fired power plants, whose output rose by nearly 0.4 TWh to 0.8 TWh. By contrast, the largest decline in generation was observed at hydropower plants, which supplied around 105 GWh less to the grid. Total net electricity generation in the Czech Republic stood at 7.5 TWh, up 0.4 TWh year on year (+5.6 %).
No extreme electricity prices recorded
The average spot electricity price on the Czech market stood at 131.5 EUR/MWh in January. Despite the very cold weather, the market did not see a greater occurrence of extreme electricity prices. Electricity prices above 200 EUR/MWh were seen in 235 quarter-hour intervals, while prices above 300 EUR/MWh occurred in only two quarter-hour intervals. The highest quarter-hourly price was 340.7 EUR/MWh.
For comparison, the average price on the Czech spot market in January last year was 128.4 EUR/MWh, with prices above 200 EUR/MWh recorded for 30 hours and prices above 300 EUR/MWh for 9 hours. The maximum hourly price was 563.1 EUR/MWh.
Cold weather and low levels of gas storage inventories in the Czech Republic and Europe were nevertheless reflected in natural gas prices. For example, the price of the front-month gas contract at the most liquid European trading hub, TTF, rose by more than 30 % over January and exceeded 40 EUR/MWh on several days.
Similar price developments were observed on the Czech intraday natural gas market, where weighted average prices of around 30 EUR/MWh were seen at the start of January, while prices exceeded 42 EUR/MWh by the end of the month.
However, prices remain lower than in January 2025, when, for example, the price of the front-month gas contract at the TTF trading hub ranged between 45 and 53 EUR/MWh.
