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Producción y mercados energéticos 04/02/19

Latest Energy News

04 February 2019

TOP STORY: Russia’s UES power generation increased by 1.6% in 2018 The Unified Energy System of Russia, which manages seven power systems in Russia (all Russia excepted northern islands and isolated systems in north-eastern Siberia) has issued its 2018 annual report. Domestic installed capacity increased by 1.4% to 243,243 MW at the end of December 2018 and remains dominated by thermal power plants (68%), while hydropower plants accounted for 20% and nuclear power plants for 12%. Renewable capacities accounted for less than 1% (0.3% for solar and 0.1% for wind). Power generation increased by 1.6% to 1,071 TWh, including +1.6% for thermal power plants (64% of the power mix), +2.7% for hydropower plants (17% of power generation) and +0.7% for nuclear plants (19% of power generation). Renewable power generation rose significantly (+66% for wind and +35% for solar) but remained marginal in the power mix (around 0.1%). Power consumption rose by 1.5%. In 2018, Russia imported 4,002 TWh, of which 3,700 TWh from Kazakhstan, 178 TWh from Estonia and 78 TWh from the Ukraine. It exported 19,529 TWh, including 7,881 TWh to Finland, 3,109 TWh to China, 2,945 TWh to Lithuania, 2,942 TWh to Ukraine, 1,200 TWh to Latvia, 569 TWh to Belarus and 388 TWh to Mongolia. More specifically, state-run power company RusHydro also published its yearly results, reporting an all-time high gross power generation record of 144 TWh (+2.8%): hydropower and pumped storage plants power generation rose by 2.6% to 98.4 TWh due to highers total water inflows in the hydropower plants of Siberia and in the Volga-Kama cascade. Meanwhile, its thermal power generation rose by 3.9% to 31.7 TWh. RusHydro’s total installed electric capacity stood at 39,363 MW, of which 326 MW were commissioned in 2018. This figure entails in particular 27,695 MW of hydropower capacity, 8,591 MW of thermal capacity and 79 MW of geothermal capacity.

Companies Southern Company files plan to boost renewables in Georgia (US) by 1 GW Southern Company’s subsidiary Georgia Power has filed a new integrated resource plan (IRP) with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) that includes a request to approve the procurement of up to 1 GW of new renewable energy capacity. If approved, the subsidiary’s renewables capacity would account for 18% of its portfolio by 2024. Read more Fortum (Finland) plans to invest €650m in 2019 Finnish power company Fortum has preliminary results for 2018 and unveiled its objectives for the next year. Approximately €600m – €650m will be set aside for capital expenditures throughout 2019, including maintenance and excluding potential acquisitions. The company expects electricity demand in the Nordic countries (i.e. Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland) to grow by 0.5% on average. Read more SOCAR purchases Turkish natural gas supplier EWE Turkey Holding Azerbaijan’s state-run oil and gas company SOCAR has acquired the Turkish natural gas supplier EWE Turkey Holding from its parent company, the German energy firm EWE. The acquisition will be reviewed by several Turkish governmental bodies: the Competition Authority, the Energy Market Regulatory Authority and the Information and Communication Technologies Authority. Read more Energy Markets CNOOC will purchase 1.5 Mt/year of LNG from Mozambique LNG US-based oil and gas company Anadarko Petroleum has signed a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) with CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corporation) for the delivery of 1.5 Mt/year of LNG from its Mozambique LNG project over a 13-year period. This is another step forward for the project and Anadarko expects other LNG SPAs in the future. Read more Infrastructure & Investments Eskom plans to invest up to US$900m in coal mines (South Africa) South African state-run power utility Eskom has outlined plans to invest up to ZAR12bn (nearly US$900m) over the next 5 years to ensure the quality of its coal supplies for its power plants. The company is facing critical supply shortages: in 2018, Eskom had 6 of its 15 coal-fired power operating with less than 10 days of coal supply, which is well below the minimum threshold of 20 days. Read more Bulgaria’s TSO Bulgartransgaz will build Turkish Stream onshore extension Bulgarian gas transmission system operator (TSO) Bulgartransgaz has closed the open season process for the planned expansion of the country’s gas transit capacity. The entire capacity offered at two interconnection points on the Turkish-Bulgarian and Bulgarian-Serbian borders for a 15-year period starting from January 2020 has been successfully booked. Read more Novatek signs equipment agreement for Arctic-2 LNG export project (Russia) Russian independent independent oil and gas producer Novatek has awarded Siemens a contract on compressor equipment for three liquefaction trains of the Arctic LNG 2 export project on the Gydan Peninsula (Russia). Read more Sempra Energy’s Port Arthur LNG project receives new clearance (US) The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has granted the final environmental impact statement (EIS) to the Port Arthur LNG project developed by US energy company and LNG operator Sempra Energy in Jefferson County (Texas, United States). This is the last step in the environmental review process before FERC can proceed to issue a final order approving the project. Read more