Electricity exports soar

By Azernews

By Leman Mammadova

Azerbaijan increased the output and export of electricity in the first eight months of 2019.

Azerenergy OJSC generated 15.81 billion kWh of electricity in January-August 2019, which is 5.1 percent more than in the same period in 2018.

As for August alone, 2.14 billion kWh of electricity was produced in Azerbaijan, which is 10.5 percent (200 million kWh) more than in the same month last year.

As for the export results, the country exported 916.1 million kWh of electricity in January-August 2019. Some 166.3 million kWh was exported in August, while the figure was 72.2 million kWh in August 2018.

Georgia accounted for 158.8 million kWh of electricity of Azerbaijan’s total exports in August.

In 2018, Azerbaijan's electricity exports increased by 165.2 million kWh in comparison with 2017 (1.28 billion kWh), reaching almost 1.5 billion kWh. As many as 1.23 billion kWh of this amount was exported to Georgia, 121.5 million kWh to Russia, 80.3 million kWh to Iran, and 13.45 million kWh to Turkey.

The cost of electricity exported from Azerbaijan amounted to about $66 million, and the value of exports increased by $16 million compared to 2017.

Total electricity production in Azerbaijan amounted to 25.2 billion kWh in 2018.

Azerbaijani government expects the power generation in 2019 at 25.5 billion kWh. This figure is expected to go up by 2 percent annually to 27.1 billion kWh in 2022. The capacity of the country's generating system is 7,172.6 megawatts.

The share of renewables in the total power generation is expected to be 15 percent by 2020, 25-30 percent by 2025 and 35-40 percent by 2030.

Azerenergy is the main exporter of power in Azerbaijan. There are over 30 power plants on the balance of Azerenergy. The total power generation capacity of these stations exceeds 6,000 megawatts, which allows generating about 24 billion kWh of electricity annually.

Azerbaijan, which has been exporting power to neighboring countries for a long time, has already begun exporting energy to European countries.

Since early May 2019, Azerenergy has started supplying power to Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary through Georgia and Turkey. The company also plans to export power to Austria and Italy.