At the weekend, Ukrenergo limited the production of electricity from renewable energy sources

Ukrenergo reported that on March 28 (Sunday) it was forced to apply a dispatch restriction on electricity production due to a decrease in consumption and an increase in renewable energy generation, the press service notes.

The company noted that the third week of March was characterized by a significant decrease in electricity consumption on weekends as a result of a significant increase in the average daily temperature.

Compared to last year, the average daily electricity consumption on weekends increased by 10.6%.

On Sunday, March 28, the power system experienced a significant surplus of electricity at an extremely low level of consumption.

The surplus indicator per day was up to 25 million kWh. At the same time, consumption on March 28 amounted to 377 million kWh, which is the lowest indicator for the entire 2021, and the level of consumption in the morning peak as of 11:00 a.m. amounted to 16.8 GW (-0.9 MW to the previous day). Also on this day, a record was recorded for electricity production at nuclear power plants - 63.5% of the daily volume (239.8 million kWh from 377 million kWh). At the same time, renewable energy loads peaked at 2.5 GW.

The dispatch centre of NPC Ukrenergo issued all possible commands for unloading by 11:00 a.m. to balance the power system, in particular, within the balancing market, all available reserves were used except for producers with renewable energy sources.

“However, the measures taken were not enough to ensure the boundaries of operational safety, therefore, from 11:34 to 15:37, commands were given three times to unload the SPP and WPP for a total of about 754 MW, of which only 254 MW was able to issue commands through the restrictions control system, where, following the Market Rules, data are taken to compensate for these restrictions to producers,” the company said.

The commands for unloading renewable energy sources were deactivated gradually, starting from 2:36 p.m. ​​to 6:00 p.m.

Since the beginning of March, wind farms have generated 299.2 million kWh, which is 35.7% less than the forecast value, and solar farms – 473.4 million kWh, which is 13.4% less than the forecast.