World’s electricity demand growth slowing sharply as prices soar: IEA

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Global electricity demand is expected to grow by 2.4 percent in 2022 after a six percent increase last year, bringing it in line with an average growth rate of five years before Pandemi Covid-19, the report said.

While electricity demand is currently expected to continue on the same growth path to 2023, the prospect is obscured by economic turbulence and uncertainty about how fuel prices can affect the mixture of generations.The addition of strong capacity is regulated to encourage renewable global power plants of more than 10 percent in 2022, displacing several fossil fuel plants. Although three percent of nuclear declines, low carbon generations will increase seven percent overall, which leads to a decrease in one percent in total generations based on fossil fuels.

As a result, carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) from the global electricity sector are determined to decline in 2022 from the highest of all time achieved in 2021, although less than one percent.In the first half of 2022, the average price of natural gas in Europe was four times higher as in the same period in 2021 while the price of coal was more than three times higher, producing a wholesale electricity price of more than three times in many markets.

The IEA price index for the main global electric wholesale market reaches a level of twice the average first round of the 2016-2021 period.Because of high gas prices and supply constraints, coal replaces natural gas for power plants in the market with a reserve coal generator capacity, especially in European countries that try to end their dependence on Russian gas imports.

To secure the energy supply after the Russian invasion to Ukraine, several European countries have postponed plans to eliminate coal and raise restrictions previously imposed on coal.Globally, the use of coal for electricity is expected to increase slightly in 2022 because growth in Europe is balanced by contractions in China, due to strong renewable energy growth and only an increase in simple electricity demand, and US, due to constraints in supply and coal capacity of power plants .

The power of gas is expected to fall 2.6 percent because the decline in Europe and South America is greater than growth in North America and the Middle East.”The world is in the midst of the first true global energy crisis, triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the electricity sector is one of the most affected,” said Director of the IEA Market Energy and Security Keisuke Sadamori.

“This is very clear in Europe, which experiences severe energy market chaos, and in the economy that arises and develops, where supply disorders and fuel prices that surge in large strains in fragile power systems and cause blackouts.”The government must use emergency steps to overcome direct challenges, but they also need to focus on accelerating investment in net energy transitions as the most effective eternal response to the current crisis.”