Hungary’s Paks nuclear plant has again reduced output because electricity could not be sold economically during low-price hours, showing that the country’s rapid solar expansion is beginning to alter the operating profile of traditional baseload generation.
Paks cut output by 92 MW between 11:45 and 16:00 on Sept. 27 because of market conditions.
MVM has reported at least eight similar scheduled reductions since May, including a 104 MW cut on Aug. 30 and 69 MW on Sept. 6.
The reductions are distinct from technical outages.
They occur when wholesale prices fall sufficiently low that full nuclear production cannot be economically placed in the market.
Hungary now has more than 8 GW of solar, creating increasingly large midday surpluses during sunny, low-demand periods.
That is pushing price cannibalisation beyond photovoltaic generators themselves.
Nuclear plants, traditionally expected to operate almost continuously, are increasingly being asked to respond to electricity-market conditions.
The trend strengthens the case for batteries and other flexible demand capable of absorbing excess daytime power.
Without enough storage, Hungary can simultaneously curtail low-cost nuclear or solar generation at midday and face expensive evening scarcity after photovoltaic output collapses.
The repeated Paks reductions therefore highlight a broader change in market structure.
Hungary is no longer simply short of generation.
It increasingly has too much electricity during some hours and insufficient flexibility during others.
That tension will be central to the government’s review of Paks II and its broader storage strategy.
