China wind power generation up 13.7% in August

Cumulative wind power utilisation hours climbed to 1,259 hours in August.

National wind power generation growth turned positive at 13.7% YoY in August, compared to the -10.8% YoY recorded in the previous month, according to a report by UOB Kay Hian. This pushed output growth in the first eight months of 2019 to 6.3% YoY from 5.1% YoY in 7M 2019.

National wind power utilisation hours (UH) totalled 1,259 hours in the first seven months of the year, falling by 2.6% YoY or 33 hours during the period.

In total, wind power capacity addition expanded 8.9% YoY to 10GW in the first seven months of 2019, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA).

Despite the mild growth rate in newly grid connected wind capacity, investment in wind power projects skyrocketed by 51.6% YoY toRMB36.6b in 7M 2019 from the RMB24.2b in 7M18, noted UOB Kay Hian.

Companies Huaneng Renewables (HNR) and Longyuan achieved 14.4% YoY and 9.6% YoY growth respectively in wind power generation in August after recording declines in July. Longyuan attributed the decent output to the low base in the same period last year, whilst HNR noted good wind resources for the month.

A low curtailment rate was also noted in the same month, said UOB Kay Hian. HNR reported a 1ppt YoY decline in August with a wind power curtailment rate of 2.3%. The company’s wind power UH climbed by 9 hours, or 9.7% YoY, to 102 hours.

Similarly, Longyuan announced wind power curtailment rate of 3.9% in August, lower than its curtailment rate of 3% and 5.65% in July and in H1, respectively.

UOB Kay Hian expects HNR to deliver a better performance in wind power than Longyuan as HNR reported lower wind power curtailment rates than Longyuan. UOB attributed this to HNR’s better wind capacity deployment: as of H1, 4% of HNR’s wind capacity was based in areas with >10% of wind power curtailment rate, whilst 8.3% and 6.9% of Longyuan’s wind capacity was based in areas with >15% and >10% of wind power curtailment rate, respectively.

 Photo by taylorandayumi (Wikimedia Commons).