Green Tank: record low for lignite in April

The production of electricity from lignite started at a historically low level in April, as it was limited to 176 gigawatt hours (GWh) while at four-year lows the production from fossil gas (827 GWh) started, recording the lowest price since April 2018.

In contrast, renewable energy sources without the big hydroelectric plants remained at the very high levels of the previous month (1658 GWh), recording their third historically highest performance.

The data comes from the analysis of Green Tank based on IPTO data on the sources of electricity demand last month. The increase of imports is also remarkable, which reached the highest levels since mid-2020 (793 GWh).

Thus, in April 2022, RES together with large hydropower plants covered 51.2% of demand, mineral gas 22.4%, net imports 21.5%, while lignite was reduced to just 4.8%.

The evolution in the production mix is ​​attributed on the one hand to the fact that traditionally April (due to favorable weather conditions) is a month of low electricity demand and high production from renewable sources. Thus, the participation of conventional units (lignite and natural gas) in the market is limited.

It is also noteworthy that in total, in the first four months of 2022, RES (along with large hydropower), outperformed fossil fuels (fossil gas and lignite), for the second consecutive year. Specifically, the share of “green” energy was 44.4% (36.1% for RES and 8.3% for large hydropower plants) while the share of lignite together with natural gas was 44.3% (10.2% and 34.1% respectively).

Indicative of the tectonic changes in electricity generation is that just 10 years ago, in the first four months of 2011, lignite covered 54.2% of demand and natural gas 27.2% (total fossil fuels were therefore at 81, 4%), RES were only at 4.7% and hydroelectric at 7.6%.

SOURCE: AMPE