Iberdrola's Europe CCGTs Get Busy

Leading Spanish generator Iberdrola sharply increased gas-fired generation last year in Europe, and more than doubled it during 4Q 2016 in its home market, according to provisional data released February 2.

Generation by its combined cycle (CCGT) gas-fired plants in Spain increased to 1,878 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in 4Q 2016, up by 132% year on year. Its overall generation in Spain was up 10.6%, but the extra gas-firing made up for declines from its coal (-9.6%) and wind (-18.7%) capacity.

It was a similar picture in the UK in 4Q, where subsidiary Scottish Power increased generation from CCGTs by 83.6% to 2,682 GWh. Overall UK generation fell by a fifth, with no coal-firing due to definitive closure of its last plant at Longannet, and less from hydro (-30%) and renewables (-12.8%).

For full year 2016, Iberdrola’s CCGTs produced 62% more power in Spain (at 3.7 TWh) and 32% more in the UK (at 8.3 TWh). Group-wide, the increase was 5% to 48.5 TWh – most of which in Mexico (34.8 TWh, a decrease of 4.4%) – representing 35% of Iberdrola’s total 137.3 TWh generation, up 2.2%.

Spain's overall use of gas consumption hit a five-year high on January 19 2017, due to a spike in its use in power plants during a particularly cold snap.

Mark Smedley