Czech Počerady CCGT plant to double electricity output year on year as gas begins to compete with hard coal

The Počerady combined-cycle gas turbine plant has generated more than 3.3 TWh of electricity this year, already nearly double the output recorded in each of the previous three years. The plant’s higher utilisation is also reflected in this year’s installed capacity utilisation factor, which exceeded 51 % in the first ten months.

The Počerady combined-cycle gas turbine plant’s output is breaking records this year. Thanks to favourable prices on commodity markets, it has already generated more than 3.3 TWh of electricity this year. Compared with the previous three years, when its output stood at around 1.7 TWh, the plant’s generation will therefore more than double.

Conditions for electricity generation from natural gas are now much more favourable. For example, while in 2016 the plant generated mainly during unplanned outages at nuclear power plants due to weld inspections, this year its generation is profitable thanks to a higher gross margin (the clean spark spread).

The gross margin of combined-cycle gas turbine plants is determined primarily by their efficiency, the current price of electricity, natural gas and emission allowances. Both electricity and natural gas prices have been favourable for combined-cycle gas turbine plants this year.

Natural gas prices on the spot market fell below 10 EUR/MWh during this summer. The main reason for such low gas prices was a surplus of liquefied natural gas heading to Europe, as well as lower prices on other global markets.

Although the average electricity price on spot markets is lower this year than in 2018, it remains relatively high compared with 2016 and 2017.

All these parameters support more frequent generation at Počerady, as also evidenced by installed capacity utilisation, which exceeded 51 % in the first 10 months of this year. In September this year, it even exceeded 80 %, much closer to a baseload source. By contrast, capacity utilisation stood at around 23 % in 2016–2018.

The positive market environment is also benefiting power plants in neighbouring Germany, which have already generated more electricity this year than during the whole of last year. Natural gas-fired power plants are gradually beginning to displace hard coal-fired plants from the market. The main reason is the high price of emission allowances, since the emissions intensity per MWh generated is roughly twice as high at hard coal-fired plants.