Hot June: electricity consumption increases in Tatarstan
Energy consumption has increased in Russia. In June, the System Operator stated an increase of 7,6% compared to the same period last year. A positive trend has also been noted in Tatarstan. Experts attribute this jump to the recovery of production in large industries: automotive, chemical and oil industries.
June breaks records
Since the beginning of the year, energy consumption in Russia has amounted to 553 billion kWh (+5,1% compared to the first half of 2020). Without taking into account the leap day of 2020, energy consumption increased by 4%. Compared to January-June 2019, the increase was 2,2%.
“The growth in 2021 is due to the restoration of electricity consumption after the restrictions imposed last year on the work of enterprises and organisations in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumption has also exceeded the pre-covid indicators of 2019," said Yevgeny Grabchak, the deputy minister of energy of Russia.
The branch of the Regional Dispatching Department of Tatarstan also recorded an increase in electricity consumption in the republic in June. The indicator increased by almost 17% — to 2,4 billion kWh. The Regional Dispatching Department connects the growth with the increased needs of enterprises of the automotive and oil-producing industries, chemical products production.\
June 2021 was also hot for the energy market of Tatarstan. The historical maximum of electricity consumption in the heat was recorded on June 28 at 1:00 pm. The power consumption on this day reached almost 4 GW and exceeded the maximum power consumption in June 2020 by 20%. On this day, the average daily air temperature was 27,5 degrees.
The Regional Dispatching Department confirmed that the generating enterprises of Tatarstan in June of this year increased electricity production by 6% — up to 1,9 billion kWh — compared to the same month last year. Basically, the output increased at Kazan CHPP-1 and CHPP-2, Zainskaya GRES, Nizhnekamsk CHPP-1.
In total, in the first half of the year, electricity production in the republic increased by more than 7% compared to the same period last year — up to 13 billion kWh. At the same time, electricity consumption increased by 8% to 15,7 billion kWh.
The shortage of electricity was filled due to flows to the power system of Tatarstan from adjacent regions — in the first half of the year, it amounted to 2,6 billion kWh, in June — 578,2 million kWh.
Positive processes in Tatarstan's economy
TGC-16, whose structure includes Nizhnekamsk CHPP-1, explains: the production of the station was affected not only by abnormally hot weather. In June, reconstruction works were carried out at Bugulma-500 substation, which led to a shortage of power in the Nizhnekamsk energy district. To ensure the balance of generation and consumption and maintain the reliability of energy supply to consumers, the System Operator put additional turbines into operation. Accordingly, electricity production at the station increased.
The energy company also increased the production of electric energy in the first half of 2021. This indicator amounted to 4,5 billion kWh, which is by 6,5% higher than the actual values of the first half of 2020.
The amount of heat output of TGC-16 JSC in the first half of 2021 increased by 12% compared to last year and reached 9,9 million Gcal.
The growth of Tatarstan's energy production indicators was influenced by economic activity in energy-consuming industries and weather conditions. The decline in the industrial production index and the volume of shipments in the energy sector in 2020 was due to both the pandemic and the previous warm winter.
“Besides, last year there was a favourable hydrological situation at Russian hydroelectric power plants and an increase in production at nuclear power plants due to an increase in the load of nuclear units. Therefore, the more expensive thermal power generation of Tatarstan was replaced by the flow of electricity from other regions of Russia," Alexander Shurakov, the director of the corporate ratings group of NCR agency, commented on the situation in the energy market of the Republic of Tatarstan.
For example, in 2020, the total flow of electricity to the power system of Tatarstan amounted to 5,3 billion kWh, while in 2019, it was at the level of 1,7 billion kWh. The flow to the energy system in 2020 increased by 3,4 billion kWh, and electricity consumption in Tatarstan in 2020 decreased by 1,5 billion kWh: from 30,6 billion kWh in 2019 to 29,1 billion kWh in 2020.
“This year, we are seeing positive processes in the economy of Tatarstan. Despite the decline in the industrial production index in oil production by 1,5% over 5 months of 2021 compared to 5 months of 2020, the increase in oil prices led to a twofold increase in the volume of shipments in oil and gas. This will have a positive impact on both financial results and revenues to budgets of different levels," Alexander Shurakov added.
Out of the key types of activity for the economy of Tatarstan, a significant decrease in 5 months of this year occurred only in the production of medicines: -23,8% in the industrial production index and -17% in the volume of shipments. Experts explain this by a “high base effect”. The industry grew strongly in the same periods of 2020 and 2019: by 25,7% and 38,7%, respectively.
The recovery of Tatarstan's energy sector this year is the result of the recovery of other sectors of the economy and the effect of the cold January-February 2021. The hot summer of 2021 will also make a positive contribution to the growth of the sector at the end of the year.