The first month of winter brought new records with itself in Hungary. On the 6th, 14th and 19th, the previous records were peaked according to the data of MAVIR Hungarian Independent Transmission Operator Company Ltd. The system operator has data since 1955 on when and how much electricity the population consumes.

On an average winter weekday, daily gross electricity consumption of 125,000 to 140,000 MWh can be calculated depending on the weather. The daily gross peak system load varies between 6000-6600 MW on weekdays. During holiday season, the domestic electricity consumption is less, as since mid-December, several factories and plants shut down, people are on holiday, offices, schools have winter break, thus system load is much less (4500-5500 MW). That was the case in 2018 as well. However, before the holiday, MAVIR registered several records, first on 6 December (6843 MW), then on 14 December (6854 MW). On 19 December 2018 the system load was 6869 MW, which is the highest amount ever measured. MAVIR Ltd. published that it always, even during bad weather conditions provides the amount of reserve as required, the level of supply security meets the domestic and international requirements.

On last year’s record day, 19 December, 1991 MW of electricity was provided by import, which covered about one third (28,99%) of domestic needs, similar share (28,08%) was covered by the four units of the Paks NPP. Further electricity demands were covered by other – gas, coal and renewable – power plants.

The fact that the Paks NPP covered one third of electricity demand during the peak, means that nuclear energy has an important role in electricity supply. To maintain supply security, we need to build the two new nuclear power plant units, so only this way can we maintain nuclear capacity in the long run. This serves the climate protection goals as well.