Total electricity generation in Russia for the first 9 months of 2020 decreased by 3.4% year-on-year to 772.3 billion kWh, energy consumption by 2.8% to 762.8 billion kWh, according to the recent issue of AK&M Information Agency's "RUSSIAN INDUSTRIES: PRODUCTION, FINANCE, SECURITIES. Electric Power Industry" monthly paper (No. 1394) dated October 14, 2020.
In September, the electricity output in Russia totaled 81.2 billion kWh, which is 3.3% below the result achieved in September 2019. Electricity consumption in Russia was 79.8 billion kWh in September decreasing by 3.0% year-on-year. The average monthly air temperature was 12.4°C in September, which is 1.4°C above the previous year's average. In October, the Hydrometeorological Centre of Russia forecasts the average monthly temperature in the European and most of the Asian territory of Russia to be 1-2° above the long-time average levels.
In January-July 2020, electricity exports from Russia decreased by 46.5% year-on-year to 5.845 billion kWh, according to information from Russia's Federal Customs Service. Export revenues decreased by 54.4% to $233 million. Electricity imports for the same period also decreased to 747.6 million kWh (-24.6% year-on-year) decreasing to $14.2 million (-23.7% year-on-year) in value terms. According to preliminary estimates by the Central Dispatching Department of Fuel Energy Complex (CDU TEK), 9-month electricity exports (in January-September 2020) decreased by 40.3% to 8.7 billion kWh, electricity imports by 16.2% to 0.9 billion kWh.
In September 2020, the share of renewable energy sources in total generation stabilized at 0.48-0.60% for the European part of Russia, 0.15-0.19% for Siberia, according to information provided by NP Market Council Association. It should be noted that, electricity generation by wind power plants (WPP) increased 3.6 times year-on-year in July; generation by solar power plants (SPPs) increased 2.2 times year-on-year. In July, the contribution of solar generation facilities to the total renewable generation was 66%, while wind power plant accounted for 22% of the total output.
Compared with the previous month, average monthly equilibrium electricity purchase prices in the competitive market decreased by 3.6% in Europe and the Urals, by 10.5% in Siberia in September 2020. Compared with the previous year, the average equilibrium prices decreased by 4.6% in the first energy zone, soared by 42.1% in the second energy zone in September. The difference between the average equilibrium price in the two zones was 36.6% in July. Therefore, the seasonal price gap between the two zones continued to increase.
At the end of September, the debt liabilities on the wholesale electricity and capacity market (WECM) totaled RUB 74.369 billion. In September 2018, the debt liabilities decreased by RUB 3.8 million, with a settlement ratio of 100.3%. In January-September 2020, the settlement ratio on the WECM was 99.8% (100.0% in the same period in 2019).
An in-depth segment review is provided in issue 1394 of the "RUSSIAN INDUSTRIES: PRODUCTION, FINANCE, SECURITIES. Electric Power Industry" monthly paper dated October 14, 2020.
