Trends in electricity production – July 2022

According to the latest monthly data for the interconnected electricity network from ADMIE (July 2022):

Cumulatively in the first 7 months of the year in Greece, renewables (excluding large hydro) were the source that produced the largest quantities of electricity (11594 GWh), while fossil gas (11009 GWh) fell to the second place. For the first time since 2018 power coming from gas did not increase compared to the previous year, marking a very small drop in 2022 compared to 2021(-0.1%).

Also, despite the large increase in the contribution of lignite during June and July compared to the corresponding months of 2021, cumulatively for the first 7 months of 2022, electricity generation from lignite (3200GWh) was lower compared to the same period of 2021 (3232 GWh).

Net electricity imports in the first seven months of 2022 were at the lowest levels since 2013.

This was also reflected in the shares that the various sources have in covering the demand for electricity in Greece. So, cumulatively in the first seven months of 2022, renewables (excl. large hydro) covered 37.8% of the electricity demand, fossil gas 35.9%, lignite 10.4%, large hydro 8.5%, while net imports were limited to 7.4%.

Despite the steady growth of renewables in the recent years and the marginal decrease of fossil gas, the contribution of renewables including large hydro (14,188 GWh) failed to exceed that of fossil fuels (14,208 GWh), in the first seven months of the year, due to the large increase of lignite power production in the last two months.

Thus, in the first 7 months of 2022, renewables (excl. large hydro) were the only energy source that increased both compared to 2021 (+19.5%) and 2020 (+36.9%). Even though fossil gas production remained at stable levels compared to the previous year, it was 12.9% higher than the corresponding one in 2020.

On the contrary, lignite production  – cumulatively in the first 7 months of the year – was lower compared to both 2021 (-1%) and 2020 (-2.9%), despite the upward trend during the last 2 months.

Significant is also the decrease in net imports compared to the two previous years, to which a main cause was the net export balance during the month of July.

Specifically for July 2022:

  • For the first time, electricity from renewables (excl. large hydro) exceeded 2000 GWh within a month.
  • However, renewables remained behind fossil gas, which produced 2250 GWh.
  • Energy from lignite increased significantly, reaching almost 740GWh, recording the highest monthly production since December 2020.
  • Greece was a net exporter of electricity for the second month in 2022, achieving the highest monthly net electricity exports on record (510 GWh).