Hidroelectrica sold on the balancing market 150 GWh of electricity from early January until now. Prices on this market, where Hidroelectrica is required to participate, are now more than two times higher than a year ago.
“Following the requests Transelectrica, we went every day on the balancing market. We sold electricity at prices between 55.6 and 177 euros per MWh,” said Ovidiu Agliceru, CEO of the company for economica.net. He estimated that since the beginning of this month, which was characterized by record electricity consumption due to low temperatures, Hidroelectrica sold about 150 GWh in order to balance the energy system.
“I can tell you for sure that the cold did not bring loss for Hidroelectrica,” said Agliceru while asked what would be the profit recorded by the company through the sale of electricity to balance the system.
For comparison, the average price on the balancing market, where Hidroelectrica is obliged to participate by Transelectrica, was about 71.1 euros per MWh in January 2016, according to ANRE.
Hydroelectrica is the largest electricity producer in Romania, but at the time of writing this news, energy from hydro sources provide 15% of national production of energy (1,560 MW) with the largest contribution to electricity production being in order, coal, wind and hydrocarbons, which together cover about two-thirds of electricity production.
According to Agliceru, significantly low flow of the Danube is to blame for this situation (2,350 cubic meters/second, higher than last week, but at half the level projected in autumn for this period, about 4,000 m³/s). Filling rate of water reservoirs is currently 42.7%, which implies an energy reserve of almost 1,600 GWh.
Although some groups (such as the Raul Mare River) were stopped from hydro power production, following agreements with the “Romanian Waters”, Agliceru says that the level is satisfactory and safe for Hidroelectrica to be able to meet the contracts. “We made sure to subcontract in January and went into winter with a 10% extra filling rate of the lake,” said company director.
Hidroelectrica finalized 2016 with a net profit of about EUR 222.4 million (gross – EUR 334 million) in business of EUR 712 million, according to the lawyer Remus Borza, a former trustee of the company until June 2016. It is the best result in company history.
