Ljubljana - Slovenia's electricity output dropped by over 8% last year while consumption rose by 3%. The country's output met 83% of its needs, down by almost 10 percentage points from the year before but on a par with pre-pandemic years, a report from the Energy Agency shows.

The output-to-consumption rate fell to 82.9% in 2021 from 92.6% in 2020. In the years before the Covid-19 pandemic it ranged from 82.9% in 2017 to 84.6% in 2018 and 83.5% in 2019.

The production units connected to the transmission or distribution system generated a total of 14,423 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity last year, a decrease of 1,325 GWh or 8.4% from 2020.

Renewable generation fell by 4% to 5,292 GWh and that from fossil fuels declined by 11.3% to 3,720 GWh, as the country's sole nuclear power station NEK, which is 50% owned by Croatia, put 5,411 GWh into the grid, down by 10.4%.

The share of power generated from fossil fuels dropped from 26.6% in 2020 to 25.8% as the share of nuclear fell from 38.4% to 37.5%. Meanwhile, the proportion of renewable generation rose by 1.7 points to 35%.

The bulk of renewable energy was produced by hydro power stations, but its share fell by 0.4 points to 92.2% as wind power remained at 0.1% and solar and biomas rose by 0.3 points to 4.8% and 0.1 point to 2.9%, respectively.

Total consumption increased by 3.1% to 14,173 GWh (13,336 GWh excluding power lost in the transmission and distribution system). Household consumption was up by 3% and commercial consumers used 5.2% more than in 2020.

Slovenia's transmission system is linked to those of Austria, Croatia and Italy, and will in the future also be connected to Hungary's.

In terms of physical flows, Slovenia was a net electricity exporter to Italy and a net importer from Austria and Croatia. Given total electricity exchanges at borders, it was a net exporter last year. Taking into account half of the output from NEK that was delivered to Croatia, it was a net importer.

The Energy Agency's report also shows an increase in the number of self-supplying consumers from renewable sources from 135 such installations with a total connection capacity of 1.1 MW in 2016 to 5,810 with a total connection capacity of almost 93 MW in 2021.

"The increase in the power of self-supply devices can be linked to the increasing use of electricity to heat buildings with heat pumps and, more recently, self-supply in conjunction with home charging of electric vehicles is also gaining interest," the report finds.

Retail prices of electricity hit a ten-year high for all groups of consumers last year. The price per typical household consumer in nominal terms was below EU average and lower than in Austria or Italy and above those in Croatia or Hungary. The price per typical commercial consumer was substantially below EU average and lower than in all neighbouring countries.

The final price per standard household consumer rose by 7.4% from 2020, which was mainly due to some contributions being waived on behalf of household and commercial consumers in the first wave of the pandemic in 2020.

Network fees represented 30% and energy 39.3% of the household electricity bills in 2021. Contributions, including for renewables, accounted for 10.9%, and VAT and excise duty for 19.8%.