The year 2024 was a year of records. The exceptional production of renewable energies ensured that in 2024 Austria was an electricity exporting country (4,747 GWh) for the first time since 2009. The export record can be attributed to two factors: Firstly, the massive expansion of PV systems which had a positive effect on the annual balance, and secondly, the yields from run-of-river power plants which were enormous due to the abundant amounts of water. "However, the past year also highlighted how important the trans-regional electricity grid is for transforming the energy system. Surplus solar and wind power, for example, had to be transported from the northeast of the country to the pumped storage power plants in the west more often than ever before. This means that we are increasingly reaching the capacity limits of the grids. As a result, the renewable generation had to be curtailed on numerous days in 2024," says APG’s CTO Gerhard Christiner.
Cold dark doldrums and grid bottlenecks bring gas-fired power plants onto the scene
In addition, The Austrian TSO APG had to deal with periods of dunkelflauten (dark doldrums) and grid bottlenecks – phases that are characterized by the need for high electricity imports due to no wind and a lack of solar radiation. "In such periods of high consumption combined with a low renewable harvest, it is always necessary to start up gas-fired power plants to secure the domestic power supply. With an efficient electricity grid and good international interconnections, such periods could also be compensated better with imports of renewable energy from abroad. Considering the status quo of the expansion of the transmission grid, it would be irresponsible at the moment to abandon a secure grid reserve based on gas-fired power plants," says Christiner.
In 2024, Austria was able to export electricity on 243 days
An overview of 2024 shows how volatile the energy system has become, which is among other things due to the ever-increasing share of renewables. On the one hand, there is a massive expansion of PV systems: Austria currently has around 8,200 MW of installed PV capacity, with around 200 MW being added each month. On the other hand, the current degree of expansion of wind power capacities amounts to around 4,000 MW. Combined with extremely high water levels, these factors led to high exports in the first quarter of the year (which is not typically the case at this time of the year) and a historic export peak of 5,406 MW in September. The final quarter of 2024, however, was characterized by a dependence on electricity imports.
2024 saw an exceptionally high production of renewable energies (57,713 GWh) – this is an increase of 14.4 percent compared to the renewable production in 2023. In 2024, Austria was able to export electricity abroad on 243 days.
APG continually keeps track of the development of the domestic electricity industry and regularly publishes diagrams at https://www.apg.at/infografiken regarding the topics: energy exchange, energy consumption in Austria, renewables production, import/export, electricity prices, etc.
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About Austrian Power Grid (APG)
As independent transmission system operator Austrian Power Grid (APG) is in charge of ensuring the security of the electricity supply in Austria. With our high-performance and digital electricity infrastructure and the use of state-of-the-art technologies we integrate renewable energies and reduce the dependency on electricity imports, we are the platform for the electricity market, and we provide access to reasonably priced electricity and thus create the basis for Austria as supply-secure and future-oriented industrial and business location and place to live. The APG grid totals a length of about 3,500 km and is operated, maintained, and continuously adapted to the increasing challenges of the electrification of businesses, industry, and society by a team of approximately 1,000 specialists. 67 substations are distributed all over Austria and the majority is operated remotely. Thanks to our committed employees Austria had a security of supply of 99.99 percent also in 2024 and thus ranks among the top countries worldwide.
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