Electricity consumption and generation

Electricity consumption (grid load) in December 2021 was 42.9 terawatt hours (TWh), down 0.5% on a year before. Electricity generation in Germany was  45.8 TWh and up 2.8%.

Total renewable generation was up 2.4% on December 2020. There were increases in generation from onshore wind (up 7.2%) and solar (up 4.8%), and decreases in generation from hydro (down 11.9%), other renewables (down 11.5%), offshore wind (down 2.5%) and biomass (down 2.1%). The large decrease in hydro generation is due to the comparatively small amount of capacity available because of maintenance and modernisation work on several hydro plants. These plants include Töging with a rated capacity of 85.3 megawatts (MW); the plant is out of operation because of extensive modernisation work that began at the end of September and is due to finish at the end of January.

As in previous months, fossil fuel generation showed year-on-year increases in generation from hard coal (up 29.7%) and lignite (up 9.1%) and a decrease in generation from natural gas (down 17.6%). The persistently high gas prices outweigh the lower costs for carbon emission allowances and make operating gas power plants less profitable. More information on this trend is available here.

In addition, nuclear generation was down 4.1%, generation from pumped storage up 2.2%, and generation from other conventional sources up 0.6%.

Closure of several power plants at the end of the year

One of the reasons for the decrease in nuclear generation was the impending closure of several plants, with Brokdorf, Grohnde and Gundremmingen C all taken off the grid at the end of the year. Germany's three nuclear power plants left in operation are also set to close by 31 December 2022 in accordance with the Atomic Energy Act.
Three lignite-fired power plants – Neurath (with a rated capacity of 294 MW), Niederaußem (295 MW) and Weisweiler (321 MW) – also shut down.
These plant closures are clearly reflected in the data for lignite and nuclear generation:

German wholesale electricity prices

The average wholesale price in Germany in December 2021 was 221.06 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) and several times higher than the average of €43.52/MWh a year earlier. The link between the trend in prices and fuel and carbon allowance costs is explained here.
The highest price on the day-ahead market was €620.00/MWh and was recorded between 5pm and 6pm on 21 December, when an electricity consumption of 66.5 gigawatt hours (GWh) coincided with a low level of renewable generation of 8.8 GWh.

The lowest price in the month was negative €00.06/MWh and was recorded between 7am and 8am on 31 December, when 86.2% of the relatively low electricity consumption (grid load) of 44.2 GWh was covered by renewable generation (38.1 GWh). Conventional generation during this hour was 18.8 GWh.
SMARD data cannot provide a reliable answer as to whether continuous conventional generation prevented renewables from fully covering electricity consumption in this hour. The Bundesnetzagentur examines such situations in its reports on minimum generation.
While there were no negative prices on the day-ahead market in November, negative prices of a few cents per MWh were recorded in five hours on 31 December. In December 2020, negative prices had been recorded in a total of 25 hours, which resulted in a lower average price.

Commercial foreign trade

The average wholesale price in neighbouring countries was €221.41/MWh and only slightly higher than Germany's average. The highest average price among Germany's neighbours was in Switzerland and was €282.29/MWh. The lowest average was in the Norway 2 market area and was €174.30/MWh.

Germany was a net exporter of electricity to:
•    Austria, with 2,161 GWh (December 2020: 2,405.8 GWh)
•    France, with 1,763.4 GWh (December 2020: 982.5 GWh)
•    Luxembourg, with 349.4 GWh (December 2020: 332.3 GWh)
•    Switzerland, with 304.4 GWh (December 2020: 574.8 GWh)
•    Belgium, with 255.4 GWh (December 2020: 120.1 GWh)
•    Netherlands, with 235.0 GWh (December 2020: 286.5 GWh).

Germany was a net importer of electricity from:
•    Czechia, with 94.5 GWh (December 2020: net exports of 99.1 GWh)
•    Norway, with 97.8 GWh (December 2020: 163 GWh)
•    Poland, with 183.9 GWh (December 2020: net exports of 25 GWh)
•    Sweden, with 196.3 GWh (December 2020: 239.7 GWh)
•    Denmark, with 940 GWh (December 2020: 1,167.2 GWh).

Overall, Germany exported 3,556 GWh more electricity than it imported in December, making it a net exporter. Net exports a year earlier were 3,256.8 GWh and so were higher this year.

As in November, there was a large year-on-year increase in net exports to France, from 982.5 GWh to 1,763.4 GWh. This is again due to the wholesale prices, which made it cheaper for France to import electricity from Germany. The average wholesale price in France was €274.67/MWh. The wholesale price in Germany was lower than in France in 507 of the 744 hours of trading (2020: 429 hours). In addition, France had a smaller amount of nuclear capacity available and as a result its nuclear generation was down 8.3%.

In turn, it was cheaper for Germany to import electricity from Poland. The price in Poland was lower than in Germany in 425 hours. It was the opposite in December 2020, when electricity in Germany was cheaper than in Poland in 611 of the 744 hours of trading.

Please note: This is our last monthly "Electricity market topics" article. The monthly articles are being replaced by quarterly updates on figures and trends in the electricity market.