This report overviews the 2020-21 developments in the Israeli electricity market with emphasis on the power generation segment. Despite delays attributed to the pandemic lockdowns, a significant progress continued in the renewables segment with integration of hundreds of MWp in 2020 and 2021, led by the solar segment while also finalizing the start-up of the first major pump accumulation project in Gilboa. By the end of 2020, Israeli national electric generation capacity was at 19.8 GWp, with IEC making up 59.0% of total grid-connected capacity, while private producers made up the remaining 41.0%. In terms of electricity generation and supply, 72.8 million kWh were produced in 2020 in the Israeli market, up from 72.5 million kWh in 2019. The 2020 generation segment was relying on a mix of fuels, dominated by natural gas and coal - both utilized by the Israel Electric Corp (IEC) as primary fuels. Secondary fuels of the IEC were diesel, oil fuel and methanol. Private power generation facilities were primary relying on natural gas, while diesel, oil fuel, kerogen and renewables were secondary energy sources.
Despite delays attributed to the pandemic lockdowns, a significant progress continued in the renewables segment with integration of hundreds of MWp in 2020 and 2021, led by the solar segment while also finalizing the start-up of the first major pump accumulation project in Gilboa. The second tender for Neot Hovav power plant compound was closed in December 2019 and finalized in June 2020. By the end of 2020, Israeli national electric capacity reached 19.8 GWp, while the installed capacity of private electricity generation facilities (including renewables) surpassed the 40.0% share and is expected to reach as much as 62.0% share by 2025.
Figure 1. Installed electricity generation capacity in Israel as of December 2020 by producer: IEC (blue) and Private Producers including renewables (red).
For the past decade and a half, the Israel Electric Corp (IEC) has been denied from building new conventional power plants, thus practically all conventional additions have been made by the private sector. The IEC capacity further reduced upon retirement of some generation units in 2019 and privatization sale of two compounds in 2019 and 2020 respectively; another IEC site of Hagit is also due to be privatized, followed by Eshkol and then Reding. In terms of privately-held conventional generation, several power plants began continuous operation over the past year and a half: the 300 MWp pump accumulation power plant in Maaleh Gilboa entered partial operation in late 2019 while its second unit began operation in summer 2020; OPC Hadera power plant received permanent operation license in July 2020; Beer Tuvya natural gas power plant went online in February 2021. In regard to renewable electricity generation, much new solar capacity was installed, and reached 2,335 MWp at the end of 2020, the largest facility connected in 2021 was Timna site of 60 MWp. Wind energy segment remained stable through 2020, awaiting major sites of Emek Bakha and Bereshit connection and synchronization in 2022. Hydropower capacity remained stable in 2020 and is not expected to change in 2021. Finally, no small-scale biogas plants were added in 2020-21.
Future developments in the generation segment include the deployment of tender quota of 271 MWp small natural gas generation facilities was concluded in November 2019 and will be gradually deployed in upcoming years; construction of industrial-scale solar&storage facilities as part of the first tender of this kind concluded in 2020 - 100 MWp by Doral, 41 MWp by Enlight and 20 MWp by Ellomay Capital; dual use PV tender is to be concluded in late 2021. Around 12 GWp renewable capacity is planned to be installed by 2030, thus about 1,000 MWp of mainly solar capacity is to be installed annually in upcoming years. A number of power plants are under planning and construction including Etgal and Tzomet natural gas powered sites and two cogeneration facilities Solad Energy and Bazan Energy, Kokhav Hayarden 300 MWp and Manara pump accumulation projects. Two major PV tenders to be executed - one in Dimona of about 300 MWp and another in Ashalim of 40 MWp (Ashalim PV 2). Finally, by 2023 two coal generation units of the IEC in Hadera are to be retired in favor of a 1,200 MWp gas power plant, though this could be delayed.
Figure 2. Installed electricity generation capacity evolution by producer in Israel (percent of total) as of December each year 2015-20 and 2021 projection: IEC (blue) and Private Producers including renewables (red).
In terms of electricity generation and supply, 72.5 million kWh were produced in 2019 in the Israeli market, and about 72.8 million kWh in 2020. IEC produced 60.9% and added with electricity purchased from private producers, the IEC altogether controlled 78.6% of total electricity supply, whereas the remaining 21.4% consisted of output supplied by private producers directly to customers or schemes of self-consumption (small PV producers and three conventional power plants). Private generation share hence reached 39.1% during 2020 and is expected to continue rising through 2021 to surpass 40%. This implies a significant overshoot of governmental original target of 20% private electricity production by 2020.
Figure 3. Supply of electricity by producer in Israel during 2020: IEC (blue), Private Producers who sell directly to consumers (red) and Private Producers who sell electricity to IEC for later distribution (green).
In 2020, the generation segment was relying on a mix of fuels, dominated by natural gas and coal - both utilized by the IEC as primary fuels. Secondary fuels of the IEC were diesel, oil fuel and methanol. Private generation facilities were primary relying on natural gas, while diesel, oil fuel and renewables were secondary energy sources. When combined, the electricity generation segment continued to be dominated by natural gas as the primary energy source (61.6% by capacity), with coal as the secondary source (24.6% by capacity) and third place taken by renewables (11.8% by capacity) – predominantly solar PV technology (10.2% by capacity). Other fossil fuels contributed a tiny fraction (0.9% of total capacity), while pump accumulation added another 1.5%. In 2021, renewables' share is expected to experience further growth, reaching about 12% of total capacity and 7% of total generation.
Figure 4. Capacity of the electricity generation segment in Israel by primary fuel type as of December 2020. Notes: diesel is calculated combined with methanol; natural gas is including both CNG and LNG.
In 2020, grid supply per capita slightly decreased from 6.4 thousand kWh in 2018-19 to 6.2 thousand kWh annually, whereas the electricity demand per capita also decreased from 5.9 thousand kWh annual level in 2018-19 to 5.7 thousand kWh annual. Total electricity generation per capita in Israel increased from 7.8 thousand kWh per capita in 2017 and 2018 to 8.1 thousand kWh annually in 2019 and 2020. The generation per capita in 2021 is expected to slightly increase.
Figure 5. Development of grid supply and demand per capita in Israel during 2010-19: Grid supply per capita (blue) and Grid demand per capita (green).
In the past, the Electricity Authority estimated that the growth in electricity demand in upcoming years is to be at 2.7% annually, which is slightly above the demographic growth rate. The growth of electricity demand in Israel was at 4.1% annual growth in 2019; but in 2020 experienced flat growth due to the Covid19 crisis. Though there is still a total electricity demand growth due to demographic expansion, the only expectation for electricity demand growth in upcoming years is wide-spread adoption of electric vehicles in the near future.
The transmission and distribution segments continued to be controlled by the IEC, but after the adoption of the Electricity Reform, the grid control department was split into a separate company in 2019 and received operation license in June 2020. Distribution segment has about 10% share controlled by the Kibbutzim and the rest by IEC; more players are expected to enter this segment upon the implementation of the market reform. Notably, in 2021 it was announced that ten players would enter the distribution segment under this framework.
The off-grid electricity market in Israel is essentially small, estimated at only several megawatts deployed in desolate locations, including diesel generators and solar PV collectors. There are however four major facilities for self-consumption which are essentially off-grid - the Noble Energy offshore generation unit, the Rotem Amfert 16.7 MWp generation unit, the Ben Gurion Airport 12.4 MWp facility and the Nesharim Energy 2014 facility rated 48.3 MWp.
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