Ukrenergo gave commands to unload renewable energy sources at the weekend

NPC Ukrenergo reports that due to a decrease in electricity consumption during the weekend (April 24-25) by 2.2% compared to the previous weekend (April 17-18), to balance the power system, dispatch commands were issued to unload renewables in the total amount 2683 MW (April 24 - 2 199 MW, April 25 - 484 MW).

The power consumption of electricity in the morning and afternoon hours has decreased significantly. In particular, on Saturday 24 April at 09:00 a.m. it was 16 GW, which is 2.4 GW less than on Tuesday, April 20 and 0.4 GW less than on Saturday, April 17.

On Sunday, April 25, the load decreased even more: at 09:00 a.m. it was 15.1 GW, which is 3.3 GW less than on Tuesday, April 20, and 0.8 GW less than the previous Sunday, April 18.

At the same time, due to favourable weather conditions, the volumes of solar and wind electricity production significantly increased during the daytime, which accounts for the "failure" of consumption. For example, on Saturday, April 24 at 08:00 a.m., the capacity of renewables was 1.4 GW, while on other days from 0.7 GW to 1 GW.

Besides, on April 25, starting from 07:00 a.m. to 08:00 a.m., the rate of decrease in consumption accelerated due to the gradual cessation of the pumped-storage power plant in pumping mode due to the filling of its own reservoirs (as of 07:00 a.m., the pumping capacity at the pumped storage power plant was 470 MW, and at 08:00 a.m. – only 37 MW). Whereas, the capacity of renewable energy sources increased from 291 MW to 746 MW.

Therefore, to balance the power system during periods of reduced consumption and at the same time intensive generation at SPPs and WPPs on April 24-25, the dispatch centre of NPC Ukrenergo issued all possible commands for unloading and all available reserves were used, except for producers with renewable energy sources. Also, all possibilities for increasing consumption by operating the pumped storage power plant in pumping mode were exhausted, and imports to the IPS of Ukraine during the hours of limited production from renewable energy sources amounted to 0 MW.

However, the measures taken were not enough, so the command was given to unload renewables:

April 24 from 8:42 a.m. to 5:26 p.m. – 2199 MW (through the Renewables Restriction Management System – 1273 MW, by operational safety – 926 MW);

April 25 from 7:35 a.m. to 5:22 p.m – 484 MW (all commands were issued through the Renewables Restriction Management System).