BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 10. Eurasia's electricity demand growth rate (except Kazakhstan and Russia) is forecast at an average 2 percent per year from 2023 through 2025, Trend reports via the latest electricity market update from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
According to the agency, this growth will be mainly backed by the growing population rate in the region, as well as the GDP growth. However, as the IEA noted, Eurasia’s macroeconomic outlook has been downgraded since Russia-Ukraine war started.
At the same time, energy production from fossil fuels is expected to continue to dominate Eurasia’s energy mix with a share of about 65 percent in the projected period of 2023-2025.
"While the deployment of renewables remains slow at the current pace, the commissioning of new nuclear plants, including in Belarus and Russia, is set to slightly reduce the CO2 intensity of power generation over our forecast period," the report noted.
The IEA also noted that Eurasia’s electricity demand increased by an estimated 1.5 percent (+24 TWh) year-on-year in 2022 – a significant slowdown compared to the record growth of 2021 (+75 TWh).
"Over 70 percent of incremental electricity demand was concentrated in the first half of the year. Electricity consumption growth slowed to below 1 percent year-on-year in the second half of the year amid the worsening economic performance. Fossil-based thermal generation rose by over 3 percent, offsetting lower hydropower output and meeting the incremental electricity demand," the report added.