APG: electricity year 2023 shows a challenging overall situation

Austrian Power Grid AG review: record figures in the 2023 electricity year show a challenging overall situation

The reserves that our grandmothers and grandfathers built into the system have been used up. APG: “The growth dynamics of volatile renewables are confronting the supra-regional power grid with new challenges”

Redispatch costs: an increase of 51 per cent over 2022. In 2023, interventions in the power plant schedule were needed on 217 days to prevent possible overloads in the power grid. For the whole of 2023, these costs for Austrian electricity customers came to 141.6 million euros – an increase of 51 per cent over the previous year and almost double the average of the past ten years.

The growth dynamics of renewables bring challenges

In 2023, a total of 87 per cent of Austria’s electricity consumption was covered by renewable energy. Renewable production in 2023 was 22 per cent higher than in 2022, when only 67 per cent of electricity demand could be covered by renewables. Hydropower increased by 19 per cent compared with the previous year and wind power by 16 per cent. In calendar weeks 17 to 25 it was even possible to cover 100 per cent of electricity demand, on balance, from sustainable energy.

In terms of the energy transition, the ongoing expansion of photovoltaic systems is also to be welcomed. By the end of 2023, around 2,400 MW of additional PV had been connected. This corresponds to the output of all the Danube power plants, but leads to major challenges: increased self-generation from PV systems brings massive feed-back of regional electricity surpluses from the distribution grids into APG’s transmission grid. At the same time, increased self-consumption means that data transparency about local consumption is lost because of the lack of digitalisation. The usual consumption peak at midday no longer exists on sunny days: the power flow reverses completely, and regional electricity surpluses have to be carried away via the transmission grid. This also changes the electricity price curve and, especially at midday on low-consumption weekends, even leads to negative market prices.

“Further expansion of PV capacity needs a comprehensive strategy for expanding the grid and storage. For effective system management to master volatile renewables, comprehensive digitalisation of all players in the electricity system is also required,” says APG manager Christiner.

APG press release on OTS (German)

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