The August heat wave was accompanied by a severe drought. – Production declined in hydro sector, jumped in the coal mining industry. – Excellent seven-month results
Neither this summer in Serbia and throughout the Balkans, obviously, could pass without an intense hot wave which floods this region every year, during more than a decade. This year arrived when it seemed that summer was close to the end, and that nothing could seriously shake up already established this year’s moderate climate. Neither the fact that July was slightly warmer than average and that flows in the Danube and the Drina basin suddenly began to decline at the end of this month , this did not shake hope that August , until the day when begins the nature transfiguration will remain within tolerable limits. And then it burst. The mercury in the thermometer went up to 40 degrees Celsius during the day, and the night was so sultry that cooling was inevitable. Electricity consumption in Serbia reached a record nearly 88 million kWh per day.
More than planned
Miladin Basaric, Assistant Director of EPS Directorate for electricity trading, says for our newspaper that in the first 19 days of August electricity sales to end customers (full supply) reached about 1.5 billion kilowatt – hours and was close to 1.8 percent higher than planned, and that the average daily temperature during this period reached a record level of 27.2, which is 5.4 degrees warmer than the August average. At the same time, as Basaric points out, started the severe drought, resulting in a more dramatic continued flows decrease. On the Danube in the 19th day of August, the average daily flow was 2,500 cubic meters per second, or 1,100 cubic meters less than planned, on the Drina only about 150 cubic meters.
Unlike previous months , when to the system gave a third more than the planned electricity amount, flowing EPS hydropower plants could not reach their planned tasks because of the reduced flow in the 19 August days. In those days they produced a total of 17 percent less electricity than planned. However , the hydro sector result was “improved ” in this period with the accumulation HPPs ( with HPP “Piva ” ), whose production was 35 percent higher than planned , but the overall EPS product score under the August heat wave ( produced 1.77 billion kWh or eight percent more than planned ) was marked by coal power plants . They produce about 1.46 billion kilowatt – hours and thus shifted their planning responsibilities by 14.3 percent. Basaric points out that this thermal sector effect, boosted by production from hydro energy, provided that PE EPS for 19 days in August on the open market sold 228 million kilowatt – hours, despite increased electricity consumption of customers with a full supply.
Seven – month period marked hydro sector
Looking at the electricity production in July, the month whose first two decades were marked by the inflows, Basaric stated that the EPS power plants (without HPP “Piva ” ) produced a total of 3,057 billion kilowatt – hours, which is 3.7 percent more than the planned electro energetic portfolio. Production of flowing HPPs (713 million kWh) during that month was 12.3 percent higher than planned. With such production and consumption of 1.2 percent less than anticipated, PE EPS in July, according to Basaric, placed 527 million kilowatt – hours on the free market.
-Also the seven-month production results are at a high level this year. From the beginning of January to the end of July, has been produced more than 22 billion kilowatt – hours, which is 1.2 percent more than anticipated. The flowing HPPs gave 6,656 billion kWh to the system and its result was 6.3 percent higher than planned. Especially remarkable is the effect of accumulation HPPs (with HPP “Piva “), which produced 1,675 billion kWh and thus shifted planned values about 71 percent. It is clear that the great hydrological conditions in the first seven months of this year, enabling excellent production in hydro sector, which indirectly influenced at the recruitment of the coal mining industry, which produced seven-month effect of about 14.48 billion kWh, 3.3 percent less than planned . The high share in production from hydro energy and stable work of the elector energetic system as a whole enabled that the EPS for the first seven months of this year sold 2,193 billion kilowatt – hours on the open market – said Basaric.
The warmest August
– This year August will be remembered as one of the three hottest August in Serbia since the values of the ambient temperature have been measured. The previous records were in 1992. when the mean daily temperature was 26.8 degrees Celsius, and last year, when the average August Day has 26 degrees. Since by the end of the month still there is ten days, it is possible that this year’s August still be remembered as one of the two warmest August. However, with an average daily temperature of 27.2 degrees in the first two decades, this year’s August, doubtless, is the third warmest month ever. Last year, that was in July with a mean temperature of 26.7 degrees – said in our paper Branko Sparavalo, a meteorologist at the EPS Directorate for the energy trading.
He said that from the beginning of the last decade in Serbia the summers have been more and more warm and that some record high outside temperature were marked. This year the August heat wave was, according to him, one of the largest, and it was accompanied by a severe drought.
– There was no rain in July. Instead of the average 65 liters per square meter, last month fell just three liters per square of the dry land. During this month the situation is even worse. In August by an average fall to 52 liters per square meter, and this year we only had one liter of rain per square meter. Therefore, this year August was marked by not only the high ambient temperatures, but extremely severe drought, at least during the first two decades of this month – said Sparavalo and said that we can expect September to be with an average mean daily temperature for this month. In addition, as he said, deviations, i.e. daily oscillations of ambient temperatures in September could be larger, though, by the way, in this first month of autumn, on multi – annual basis, variation of mean monthly temperature is relatively small.
Source; Serbia Energy/ EPS Kw