The longest, mostly cloudless days have arrived, and Hungary’s domestic solar power capacity is now large enough to produce a significant amount of electricity. It may even be exported, but after dusk, Hungary is still forced to import. However, the long-term sustainability of the energy system requires, in addition to green energy, stable nuclear power plants, flexible gas power plants, expanding storage and a reliable network background.
Solar peak and evening shortage
“On Monday afternoon, around 1:15 p.m., thanks to the significant production of solar power plants, exports amounted to about 1,700 MW. In contrast, around 8:15 p.m., industrial solar power plants had already ‘gone to sleep,’ so they could only provide about 3 MW of capacity out of the installed 4,609 MW, so imports had already increased to 3,400 MW at this time,” nuclear energy expert Zsolt Hárfás noted in his Facebook post, and the numbers were similar in the following days.
As a basis for comparison, it is worth considering the country’s largest electricity producer, the 2,000 MW Paks nuclear power plant. From this perspective, exports account for 85 percent of Paks’ capacity, while imports account for 170 percent.
According to the expert, these figures also support the need for a further extension of the operating life of the Paks nuclear power plant and the Paks II investment. In addition to new gas power plant investments, the development of energy storage and the electricity grid is also important. All of the listed items are under implementation.
Large and stable nuclear power plant capacities
The operating life of the existing units of the Paks nuclear power plant is planned to be extended by another 20 years, after the current licenses of the four units expire between 2052 and 2057. The necessary legislation has already been adopted by parliament; the operating life extension process has begun and is expected to last a decade.
The investment costs exceed €1.5 billion, or about HUF 600 billion, as the renovation list of the facility, which was put into operation in the first half of the 1980s, includes approximately 250 items, including the modernization of the electrical and control systems.
Meanwhile, the Paks II investment continues, with units 5 and 6 of the Paks nuclear power plant, each with 1,200 MW, scheduled to start generating electricity at the beginning of the next decade. The role of these units in the electricity system is to continuously and stably produce large amounts of electricity.
Fossil flexibility for the green transition
There is also a need for gas-fired power plants that can be regulated quickly, even in a fraction of a second, to ensure flexibility. When solar power plants go out of production, something else must immediately take their place, and gas power plants are suitable for this. The greater the installed renewable energy capacity of a country, the more extreme production situations can develop. These can be partly managed by integrating gas power plants into the system, which play a balancing role.
There are currently two gas power plant projects underway in Hungary: 650 MW in the Mátra Power Plant and 1,000 MW in Tiszaújváros, which will be put into production within a few years.
Storage instead of export
When renewables produce so much electricity that we don’t use it domestically, there is an opportunity to export it. However, excessive overproduction can sometimes lead to negative prices on the stock exchange, which is obviously not ideal. It is better to store the excess electricity locally, which we can use when domestic consumption picks up. Prices also jump at this time, but we are not exposed to this if we can access the electricity in storage.
There is currently 100 MW of storage capacity available, which the Ministry of Energy plans to increase tenfold by the end of the decade, partly with the 50 billion forint support of the Jedlik Ányos energy program.
In addition, large companies are also known for their energy storage investments. Mavir, the Hungarian Electricity Transmission System Operator, recently handed over its first 20 MW/60 MWh capacity electricity storage facility in Szolnok.
Alteo already has three (in Budapest, Győr and Sopron), and E.On is now building a new one in Soroksár after Zánka.
The growing power plant and storage park, as well as the ever-increasing consumption, are increasingly using the transmission network, which, if it cannot cope, can easily lead to power outages. Mavir and the three network distribution companies (E.On , MVM, Opus Titász) have the responsibility to serve consumer needs with a transmission infrastructure of adequate capacity. Mavir is planning investments worth HUF 88 billion this year, and the distributors are also reporting continuous developments.
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