Serbia: Generation and sale of electricity to end customers july/august 2013; the report on power gen, production, consumption and trading

Published on 17. September 2013., News Serbia Energy

The August heat wave was accompanied by a severe drought. – Electricity production of the hydro power sector declined,  Production jump of the coal-fired power plants – Excellent seven-month results

This summer in Serbia likewise throughout the Balkans was obviously not meant to pass again without a fierce hot wave that used to hit the region every summer for more than a decade in a raw. However, it arrived this year when the summer was about sailing close to the end with nothing in sight to disturb the seemingly established order of moderate weather. Despite both the fact that July was slightly warmer than average and sharp decline of inflows of the Danube River and Drina River watershed at the end of the month, there were hopes that August would stay within tolerable limits until the day when the nature normally enters its transformation stage. And then “all the hell broke loose”. While the mercury in the thermometer was jumping up to 40°C during the day, the nights were so sultry that cooling was inevitable. Electricity consumption in Serbia hit a record of nearly 88 million kWh per day.

The plan over fulfilled

Mr. Miladin Basarić, Assistant Director of EPS for electricity trade, confirmed that in the first 19 days of August, electricity sales to end customers (full supply) reached about 1.5 billion kWh or about 1.8 percent higher than planned, and that the average daily temperature during this period reached a record level of 27.2°C, or 5.4°C above the August average. At the same time, as Mr. Basarić pointed out, a severe drought set in, as a result of which a sharp decrease in the inflow continued. The average daily inflow of the Danube River for the first 19 days of August was 2,500 cubic meters per second, or 1,100 cubic meters less than planned, while the Drina River recorded just about 150 cubic meters in that period.

Unlike in the previous months, when the run-of-river power plants of EPS produced a third more than the planned amount of electricity, in the 19 days of August they could not achieve their planned tasks due to reduced inflows. In those days, they produced a total of 17 percent less electricity than planned. However, the overall efficiency of the hydro sector in that period was something improved by the accumulation HPPs of “Piva”, which contributed with 35 percent higher-than-planned production. Nevertheless, the overall production score of EPS during the August heat wave (produced 1.77 billion kWh or eight percent more than planned) was marked by coal-fired power plants. They produced about 1.46 billion kWh, thus exceeding their obligation under the plan by 14.3 percent. Mr. Basarić points out that such combined results of the thermo and hydro power sectors made possible for EPS to sell on the open market 228 million kWh in the 19 days of August, despite increased electricity consumption by the customers in the full-supply category.

Hydro sector made a mark in the seven-month period

Looking back at the production of electricity in July, when great river inflows were recorded in the first two decades of the month, Mr. Basarić stated that the power plants of EPS (without the HPP “Piva”) produced a total of 3,057 billion kWh, or 3.7 percent more than planned by the power portfolio. The production of run-of-river HPPs (713 million kWh) in this period was 12.3 percent higher than planned. With such production and the consumption of 1.2 percent less than projected, EPS sold in July 527 million kWh on the open market, according to Mr. Basarić.

– The seven-month production results are also at high level. From the beginning of January to the end of July, a total of more than 22 billion kWh was produced, which is 1.2 percent more than projected. The run-of-river power plants gave to the system 6,656 billion kWh, which output is 6.3 percent higher than planned. The output of accumulation HPPs of “Piva” is especially remarkable, as they produced 1,675 billion kWh and thus overfullfilled the plan by 71 percent. It is clear that the great hydrological conditions in the first seven months of the year enabled excellent production of the hydro sector, which indirectly influenced the engagement of the coal-fired power plants, so they produced 14.48 billion kWh or 3.3 percent less than planned in the same period. The fact that the great part of electricity production came from hydropower and stable operation of the power system as a whole enabled the EPS to sell 2,193 billion kWh on the open market in this period – concluded Mr. Basarić.

The warmest August

– This year August will be remembered as one of the three hottest Augusts since the measurement of ambient temperature has started in Serbia. The previous highest records refer to 1992 and the mean daily temperature of 26.8°C, and last year with the August average daily temperature of 26°C. Considering that ten days remain to the end of the month, this year’s August still could be remembered as one of the two warmest Augusts. However, with an average daily temperature of 27.2°C for the first two decades, there is no doubt that this year’s August is the third warmest month ever. For that matter, last year’s July similarly had a mean temperature of 26.7°C – said for our newspaper Mr. Branko Sparavalo, a meteorologist in the Department for electricity trading of EPS.

He explained that starting from the last decade, summers in Serbia got warmer with some high records of ambient temperature. According to him, the August heat wave was one of the most severe that also brought along a severe drought.

– There was no rain in July. Instead of the average 65 liters per square meter, last month we had just three liters per square meter of dry land. The situation is even worse this month. Compared to the average August rainfall of 52 liters per square meter, 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 also extremely severe drought, at least during the first two decades of this month – stressed Mr. Sparavalo, adding that we can expect September to be with an average mean daily temperature for this month. Apart from that, as he pointed, deviations, i.e. day to day variations of the ambient temperatures could be greater in September, even though average monthly temperature variation on long term basis is relatively small for this first month of autumn.

Source; Serbia Energy/ EPS Kwh