BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 19. In contrast to the trends observed in the industrial and heating sectors, gas used for electricity generation increased by almost 3 per cent (+4 bcm) year-on-year in 2022 despite aims to reduce gas consumption and high gas prices, which should have pushed the fuel down the merit order and favoured other sources, Trend reports with reference to the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies (OIES).
“Three main elements influenced the need to use more gas in the generation mix. First, there was continued high electricity demand in the first eight months of the year, before energy saving measures and the economic slowdown finally started to have an impact from September onwards,” reads the OIES report.
The OIES analysts note that the second reason was low availability of nuclear power.
“Nuclear generation was down by 116 TWh (16 per cent year on year), with most of the decrease concentrated in May-November as seen in Figure 18. About 69 per cent of the decline (80 TWh) originated from France alone. The French utility EDF faced a wave of repairs caused by stress corrosion plus delays to its scheduled ten-year maintenance plan due to the COVID pandemic (as well as strikes in France in October 2022), which forced a record number of reactors offline for most of the year. As a result, French nuclear generation was down by 23 per cent in 2022, lifting thermal power generation in the country and in neighbouring markets.
Another important factor was the closure of three reactors in Germany at the end of 2021 as part of the country’s phase-out process, which limited nuclear generation to 33 TWh in 2022 compared to 65 TWh in 2021 (this accounted for about 28 per cent of the total decline in nuclear generation in Europe last year). Thirdly, the severe drought across Europe, especially in the south, depleted hydro stocks last year. Hydropower generation fell by 53 TWh (15 per cent), with the bulk of the year-on-year decline concentrated in the first nine months, although this result is also explained by existing very low hydro availability in Q4 2021,” the report reads.