The volume of electric generation in Russia in January 2023 decreased by 0.4% compared to the same period in 2022 to 113 billion. kWh.
This is stated in issue No. 1514 of the monthly bulletin "Branches of the Russian economy: production, finance, securities. Electric Power Industry" dated March 15, 2023.
Compared to December 2022, the decrease in electricity production was 0.8%. The turnover of electric power enterprises in January 2023 amounted to 887.6 billion rubles, which is 2.0% lower than the value a month earlier and 13.2% higher than in January 2022. The decrease in electricity generation in January seems to have been offset by an increase in February — the Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Nikolai Shulginov said that since the beginning of the year, the growth of electricity consumption in Russia amounted to 1.3%.
In 2022, the pace of construction of coal-fired thermal power plants in China has increased. If in 2021 the construction of thermal power plants with a total capacity of 23 GW was allowed, then in 2022 this figure has already reached 106 GW. The pace of commissioning of coal—fired thermal power plants has also accelerated - from 26.2 GW in 2021 to 26.8 GW in 2022. By the beginning of 2023, 115.5 GW of coal-fired thermal power plants were already under construction in China, of which 45.2 GW were started in 2022.
The Federal Customs Service of Russia partially resumes publication of data on customs statistics of foreign trade. Thus, the value volumes of exports and imports by commodity groups will be published monthly on the 40th day after the end of the reporting period on an accrual basis and broken down by month with an update of data from the previous months of the current year. Electricity data will most likely not be disclosed separately, but the trend towards greater openness of statistics is encouraging.
Rosenergoatom expects in 2023 to reduce the output of nuclear power plants to 216 billion. kWh. Such data was reported to the press by the General Director of the concern Andrey Petrov. According to him, the tendency to reduce nuclear generation will continue until 2027. The reason is the planned retirement of capacities. The positive effect of the launch of the first power unit of the Kursk NPP-2 in 2025 will begin to affect only in 2027.
The average monthly equilibrium electricity purchase prices on the competitive market in February 2023 increased by 1.5% in Europe and the Urals, and by 2.4% in Siberia compared to the previous month. Compared to the same period a year earlier, the equilibrium average prices in the first energy zone in February were 7.5% higher, and in the second — 20.9% higher. The difference between the average equilibrium price in these two zones in February was 14.2%. The price dynamics of the past month was relatively even in both the first and second energy zones — price spikes with a drop of more than 15% were not observed.
For a more detailed analysis, read issue No. 1514 of the monthly bulletin "Branches of the Russian Economy: Production, Finance, Securities. Electric Power Industry" dated March 15, 2023.
