Czech heat consumption rose 6.6 percent year on year in the first half of the year

Heat consumption rose 6.6 percent year on year to 37.6 petajoules (PJ) in the first half of this year. Colder weather was a key factor. The increase was driven mainly by households and the services sector, while consumption in industry stagnated. Heat production rose by 4.5 percent compared with last year. The Energy Regulatory Office (ERÚ) reported this today.

"In the first half of this year, consumption of not only electricity and gas but also heat increased. The main factor was lower temperatures year on year, which led to higher heating demand among households and in the trade and services sector, while heat consumption in industry was unchanged year on year," said ERÚ Chairman Jan Šefránek.

According to the office’s statistics, households increased their consumption of district heat by 10.5 percent in the first half of this year. The increase was even more pronounced among customers in trade, services, education and healthcare, whose consumption rose by 11.2 percent compared with last year. By contrast, consumption in industry matched that of the first half of last year.

Heat production also increased alongside consumption, rising by 4.5 percent year on year. "In the context of the transformation of the district heating sector, it is important that heat production from natural gas and renewable energy sources—especially biomass—recorded the largest year-on-year increase in the first half of the year, rising by 14.3 percent," Šefránek said.

Most heat was once again produced from lignite this year, although, unlike production from natural gas and renewable sources, it was unchanged year on year. Production from hard coal, by contrast, fell by 2.5 percent. Production from waste heat rose by 2.7 percent.

Consumption fell last year, by contrast. District heating companies in Czechia reduced their deliveries by 2.6 percent year on year for the whole of 2024. The main reason was warm weather.