Prime Minister Péter Magyar on Thursday accused the former prime minister, Viktor Orbán, of knowing that Hungary’s energy system was on the brink of collapse but failing to act.
Hungary could not provide as much electricity as Orbán promised
In a video posted on Facebook, Magyar quoted a 2022 bill submitted by the previous government, which stated that Hungary’s energy supply was on the edge of a precipice because the government had burdened the system with a “full Paks-worth” of electricity demand to benefit major investors, MTI wrote.
“In other words, they promised more electricity to major industrial players, often battery investment projects, than the domestic energy system could safely provide,” the prime minister said. Magyar said Hungary needed “an energy and water revolution”, including “unprecedented development” of energy storage capacities and the electricity grid.
Negative prices for solar energy
Magyar noted that while Hungary has over 8,800MW of solar capacity, its energy storage capacity is only 980MW, meaning the country can produce roughly nine times more energy from the sun than its storage facilities can absorb at any given moment. As a result, Hungary often produces surplus energy during sunny periods, which it can only sell at minimal or even negative prices, yet it struggles to store enough for night-time or cloudier conditions, he explained.
Despite this, he said, the Orbán government had consistently removed requirements for storage capacity development from regulations and subsidy programmes for industrial and residential solar projects. He vowed that the current government would develop energy storage capacity to reduce Hungary’s import dependence.
Magyar also blamed the previous government for the underdevelopment of the electricity grid. He said that on Friday, the government will announce the results of a nearly 600 billion forint (EUR 1.7bn) EU-funded tender to develop the electricity grid, enabling the construction of new power lines, substations and higher-capacity transformers. “Hungary’s energy will be safer, cheaper and increasingly domestic,” he said.
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Water and energy crises almost over
Referring to the current heatwave and drought, which has led to a reduction in output of the Paks plant, the prime minister noted that major industrial consumers are still expected to voluntarily reduce energy consumption, and he thanked the public for avoiding or rescheduling electricity use between 5pm and 10pm.
Magyar added that the Danube’s water level at Paks has risen by 11cm since Sunday, and rain is currently falling in the Austrian catchment areas. However, this will likely not be enough to fully restore Hungary’s nuclear power plant, and a new period of dry, hot weather is expected next week, meaning “we will have to count every centimetre again,” he said.
Did the Danube run dry in Budapest and Paks because the Slovaks diverted it?
