Electricity and gas savings trend in Czechia ends as consumption rises for second quarter in a row

The trend of saving electricity and gas in Czechia has ended. The first quarter of this year was the second consecutive quarter since the 2022 energy crisis in which consumption rose year on year, even after adjusting for weather effects. However, savings remain substantial compared with pre-crisis years. This follows from a press release by energy group Amper.

Experts had already observed a trend of rising electricity consumption in the third quarter of last year, while electricity consumption increased by 2.9 percent in the final quarter of last year, or by 1.8 percent after adjusting for weather effects. In the first quarter of this year, year-on-year growth stood at 5.3 percent, or 3.1 percent after adjusting for weather effects. This may partly be due to the replacement of gas-using technologies with electric technologies, such as heat pumps. „Last year, savings in the first quarter compared with the pre-crisis period of 2017 to 2021 amounted to ten percent; this year, they are already half that,“ said Martin Nádeníček, a member of the board of Amper Savings.

A significant share of electricity consumption savings in recent years was generated by newly connected photovoltaic power plants, which reduced the amount of electricity that needed to be drawn from the grid. In the first quarter, solar power plants generated 59 percent of all renewable energy, while renewable energy generation was a quarter higher than the 2016 to 2024 average. These sources could theoretically have covered 7.3 percent of consumption in the first quarter.

Gas consumption was 15.2 percent higher year on year in the first quarter, although after adjusting for weather effects and the consumption of the combined-cycle Počerady power plant, the increase was only three percent. „To make it possible to compare individual periods, we standardise consumption for the same temperature and sunshine levels. For gas consumption, we also take into account the different consumption of the Počerady power plant. This is an important indicator of the economy's performance and of the effectiveness of energy-saving measures enabled by new technologies. Without data adjusted in this way, it is difficult to forecast future developments,“ said Kamil Rajdl, a data analyst at Amper Meteo, which has long been engaged in this assessment of energy data.

Lower prices also supported higher gas consumption. However, compared with the same period in 2017 to 2021, savings remain significant. Both without and with adjustment for weather effects, they stand at 13 to 14 percent.

Amper bases its calculations and analyses on publicly available data. It obtains electricity consumption data from ČEPS and current gas data from NET4GAS. It also works with data from the Energy Regulatory Office (ERÚ) and ČEZ.