LAGIE, the Electricity Market Operator, has forecast bad news for the country’s renewable energy sources (RES) special account, which it expects to end both 2015 and 2016 in deficit territory.
The operator expects a negative start for the RES special account this year followed by a considerable deficit contraction by the year’s end.
More specifically, the RES special account is expected to register a deficit of 102.16 million euros for January of this year followed by reductions to 65.95 million euros for February and 49.24 million euros for March, according to the operator’s forecast.
A similar pattern is expected for the closing three-month period of 2015, during which the RES special account deficit is seen reaching 110.13 million euros in October before contracting to 82.69 million euros in November and 35.80 million euros in December.
As for 2016, LAGIE expects the RES special account to begin with a deficit of just 5.64 million euros in January, followed by surplus figures of 16.81 million euros in February and 14.80 million euros in March. Despite this improvement, 2016 is still expected to end with a deficit of 92.01 million euros.
The LAGIE report noted that total installed RES capacity throughout Greece rose to 5,070 MW in 2014.
Wind-energy capacity rose to 1,978 MW in December from 1,933 MW in November. Photovoltaic facility capacity increased to 2,221 MW from 2,215 MW, while roof-mounted PV capacity remained unchanged at 375 MW. Capacity also remained stagnant for small hydropower plants, at 220 MW, biomass-biogas units, at 47 MW, and combined heat and power (CHP) production, at 229 MW.
Changes were registered in electricity production levels. Wind-energy production reached 328 GWh in December from 305 GWh in November, while PV production dropped to 151 GWh from 169 GWh, and roof-mounted PV production fell to 37 GWh from 44 GWh. Production at small hydropower plants increased to 76 GWh from 47 GWh, biomass-biogas units edged up to 18 GWh from 16 GWh, and CHP production increased to 119 GWh from 111 GWh.