UES System Operator report: retail market power plants growth in 2023 amounted to more than 5%

The UES System Operator published the Report on the volumes of capacity supplied to the wholesale market in 2023. As of December 2023, 494 retail market power plants with a total installed capacity of 16,124 MW were included in the calculation model of UES of Russia.

In 2023, 796 MW of generating facilities operating in the retail market will be included in the calculation model of UES of Russia in accordance with the established procedure.

Thus, the growth of retail market power plants represented in the calculation model of UES of Russia in 2023 amounted to more than 5% relative to the value of 2022.

In the wholesale market in 2023, there was an increase in underdelivery of capacity due to a decrease in available capacity ready to carry load, due to generating equipment under scheduled, unscheduled and emergency repairs, as well as due to other repair reductions at the main and auxiliary equipment of power plants.

In 2023, the average annual capacity shortfall increased by 8.2% relative to 2022. Of the 231,039 MW of installed capacity of facilities operating on the wholesale market, 172,334 MW were available for capacity supply in 2023. That is, 58,705 MW was not available for capacity delivery and power supply to consumers.

"In the conditions of a mobilization economy, the most acute issue for the development of production is access to energy supply with minimum costs and time. Unfortunately, the energy infrastructure is currently more interested in the issues of increasing its own revenue at the expense of the entire economy than in the issues of efficient connection and power supply to consumers. That is why power supply from power sources that are more efficient than power plants of the wholesale market, the cost and terms of launching which are lower than connection to power grids, is very much in demand," said Valery Zhikharev, Vice-President of the Small Energy Association, Deputy Director of the MKS Group of Companies for Energy.