Electricity: ONEE plays a balancing act

Tensions relating to prices and supplies, lack of visibility… the raw mate­rials market is subject to all kinds of excess. In this situation, the National Water and Electricity Board (ONEE) has built up a stock of coal which would cover production until September, or even until the end of the year. One thing is certain, namely that is that the surge in the price of coal and fuel will have a major im­pact on the ONEE’s finances. Signi­ficant negative margins are planned: 0.70 MAD and 0.939 MAD per kilo­watt/hour respectively for the sale of medium voltage and low voltage elec­trical energy.

For the moment, the shutdown of the Tahaddart and Ain Beni Mathar power plants has not been felt. ONEE has met a constantly growing demand. In 2021, such a demand grew by 5.6%, and 2022 started at an interesting le­vel.

At the end of March, net energy de­mand increased by 4.9% compared to the same period last year. This repre­sents all the quantities of energy made available for national consumption and which were mainly consumed by users. Added to this are losses in the transmission and distribution grids.

For the next few months, consumption could increase, particularly in summer. This period is generally characterized by two consumption peaks, including the evening peak, which is conside­red to be high. This is a challenge for ONEE, especially in the event of a delay in restarting gas-fired power plants. These should, in principle, play the role of a “safety valve” only, espe­cially in the face of soaring gas prices. In any case, to avoid unpleasant sur­prises and therefore the risk of outages and load shedding, ONEE is working on setting up an emergency plan. The latter should enable it to overcome the constraints posed by the shutdown of these two plants.

This first quarter of 2022 is characte­rized by the sharp (31.2%) increase in consumption in the agricultural sector: This can be explained, among other things, by the use of electric pumps for irrigation. The beginning of the year was marked by the delay in the autumn rains and by the high tempe­ratures which caused it. Moreover, the weak growth experienced during the first quarter (1.2% according to the High Commissioner´s Office for Planning, HCP) is mainly due to the poor performance of the agricultural sector. The agricultural value added declined by 12.1% in the agricultural sector compared to a rise of 3.3% for the non- agricultural sector. ONEE statistics confirm the recovery of acti­vity in the tertiary sector and industry.

As far as residential consumption is concerned, it increased by 1%. A level considered normal. Since the intro­duction in 2014 of selective pricing beyond the social brackets (social ta­riffs according to the actual consump­tion), households seem to pay more attention to the bill.

Khadija MASMOUDI