The National Administration of Power Plants and Electric Transmissions (UTE) reported that the first half of 2024 was one of the best in five years for electric dams due to high rainfall, while the participation in energy generation by power plants was one of the worst in 20 years.
According to official figures on the production of the dams of Big Leap and Black river, managed by UTE, They had a production of 3,402 GWh during the first half of this year. A little less than in 2019 – five years ago – when a peak of 3,896 GWh was reached.
In this way, 51% of the energy generation was supplied by electric dams. Meanwhile, the total generated by them was three times greater than in the same period last year. However, if the dams are compared, Salto Grande managed to triple its interannual production, while those of Río Negro managed to quadruple their production if compared to the first half of last year.
Low participation of thermal power plants
The first half of the year, however, saw less success in energy production from thermal power plants, which only produced 106.4 GWh, representing a 1.6% share of the total. This was one of the lowest production levels in the last 20 years.
Thus, renewable energies – both wind and solar – have been declared the winners in Uruguay’s energy matrix after the first transformation carried out by the government of José Mujica.
88.5% of the energy generated during 2023 came from renewable sources
88.5% of the total energy generated in the country during the year 2023 came from renewable sources, According to a record compiled by the Electricity Market Administration (ADME).
The wind power was at the top of the generation ranking, with 39.6%, followed by the hydraulics, with 28.1%. Much further behind were the biomass, with 9.3%, the thermal, with 7.8% and the solar, with 3.7%.
From the survey, it is clear that the remaining 11.5% has to do with the imported energy from neighboring countries, being the majority supplier Brazil, with 11.3%, while Argentina contributed 0.2%.
The total generated was 10,700.4 gigawatts per hour (GWh), while it imported a total of 1,389.4 GWh from Argentina and Brazil. Meanwhile, it exported 230.9 GWh in total, of which 213.6 were for Argentina, equivalent to 92.5%; and 17.3 to Brazil, which represents 7.5%.
Source: Ambito
