RES covered 37.5% of demand in the first 8 months of this year compared to 31.3% in the 8th month last year and 23.4% in 2019
After the all-time record for the renewable energy sources, which for the first time covered the electricity demand for 5 hours on Friday, October 7, another milestone is expected to be broken during the year: the installed capacity of “green” units in the Greek system will unexpectedly exceed this year the 10,000 megawatts, from 9,300 megawatts at the beginning of the year.
According to market sources, RES units (mainly wind and photovoltaic) have already reached 9,700 megawatts. The increase in production capacity has led respectively and in increasing “green” power generation with the result that during the first 8 months of this year, RES covered 37.5% of the demand (ADMIE data, Greentank processing) compared to 31.3% in the 8th month last year and 23.4% in 2019. This means that the cumulative increase in “green » of production from 2019 reaches 60 %. It is also indicative that in 2021, RES covered more than 30% of the load for 3684 hours and above 50 % for 841 hours.
“Some claim that de-lignitization was done prematurely. The reality is that de-lignitization took place at the right time, but what was delayed is the Renewable Energy Sources”, points out the president and CEO of the Renewable Sources and Guarantees of Origin Administrator (DAPEEP), Yannis Jarentis, in relevant statements to the Athens Agency, and adds : “If we had 5 extra gigawatts of RES 5 years earlier, the situation today would be much better both in the energy mix, as we would not be so dependent on natural gas, and in the price per kilowatt hour. I note that RES throughout the energy precision period contributed the largest share of the “pie” of subsidies to consumers. I also note that in the five-year period 2015-2019, only 500 contracts were signed with RES producers, when in the three-year period 2019-2022, 5,000 were signed. In this way, RES was accelerated and we managed to go faster than other European countries in the direction of green energy”.
The increased participation of RES in the energy mix has multiple benefits for the economy and the consumer:
FirstlyRES contribute to energy self-sufficiency and reducing dependence on imported hydrocarbons.
Secondly, RES units today are by far the cheapest source of energy compared especially to the natural gas that has been released due to the war. As the general director of the Hellenic Wind Energy Scientific Association (ELETAEN) Panagiotis Papastamatiou points out to APE-MPE, the compensation of wind turbines for October is 94 euros per megawatt hour (even lower, at 57.66 euros for the parks that joined the last RAE auction), compared to 190 euros for lignite stations and 499 euros for natural gas stations.
Thirdly, their participation in the market lowers the wholesale price of energy as RES “displaces” more expensive units that would have to operate to meet demand. The “plunge” observed in the prices of the Energy Exchange during the days and hours when RES production is increased is typical. According to ELETAEN’s calculations, without RES the wholesale price of electricity would be 40% higher.
It is also indicative of a report by the general manager of MORE (a subsidiary of the Motor Oil group) Vassilis Papakonstantinou that abroad during the hours when there is an excess of RES, even negative prices are formed on the Stock Exchange (that is, suppliers are paid to buy energy), while in in our country there were times with zero or almost zero prices.
At the same time, investment interest in RES remains strong as, in addition to the existing capacity, according to RAE data, there are another 10.7 gigawatts with definitive connection terms and an additional 23 gigawatts for which applications have been submitted. A prerequisite for the implementation of these investments is the creation of the required electrical “space” in the networks. As pointed out by ADMIE, the ten-year investment program, with new electrical interconnections at sea and on land, is going to increase the capacity of the Transmission System for green energy units to approximately 28 GW – from 17 GW today – exceeding by 4 GW the corresponding goal of ESEK for the same period.
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