14 Jan 2021 | 08:53 UTC — Warsaw

Poland's 2020 power demand down 2.3%, imports at new record

Highlights

Demand recovers in December

Coal share down to 72%

Wind, gas shares edge up

Warsaw — Electricity demand in Poland fell 2.3% year on year to 165.5 TWh in 2020 thanks to the economic restrictions imposed to control the coronavirus pandemic, the country's transmission system operator PSE said Jan. 13.

Even a 4.3% year on year rise in demand in December was insufficient to overturn the decline, but annual growth in demand in both November and December showed the pandemic's impact on winter consumption was much reduced.

Net power generation in 2020 dropped 4% year on year to 152.3 TWh, according to PSE data. The shortfall was offset by record net imports of 13.2 TWh, accounting for 8% of total power demand, up from 6.3% in 2019, thanks to Poland having the highest wholesale power prices in the region.

In December, net imports fell 13% year on year thanks partly to interconnector maintenance.

Hard coal and lignite's share of total generation in 2020 fell three percentage points YoY to 72%. In December, however, hard coal generation saw a 10.8% YoY rise.

Wind generation had a 9.3% share of total 2020 output, up from 8.8% in 2019. Gas-fired generation's share of the total was 9.1%, up from 7.6%.

What PSE describes as "other renewable installations", which in practice is almost totally PV solar, increased its share of the total from 0.3% to 1.44%.

POLAND - ELECTRICITY BALANCE, DEC AND FY 2020 (GWh)

Dec-19
Dec-20
% change
2019
2020
% change
Power consumption
14,665
15,291
4
169,391
165,532
-2.28
Power production
13,792
14,535
5
158,767
152,308
-4.07
Hard coal
6,355
7,039
11
78,190
71,546
-8.5
Lignite
3,234
3,028
- 6
41,502
37,969
-8.51
Gas
1,310
1,499
14
12,099
13,924
15.09
Wind
1,664
1,638
- 2
13,903
14,174
1.95
Industrial
969
927
- 4
10,178
9,799
-3.73
Hydro
209
250
19
2,454
2,698
9.96
Other RES, mainly PV
51
154
201
441
2,198
398.2
Net imports
873
756
- 13
10,624
13,224
24.48
Source: PSE