Almost 90% of generated electricity comes from natural gas — NEPCO

AMMAN — The amount of electricity generated in 2017 amounted to about 19,283 GWh, 87.3 per cent of which was natural gas, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Sunday. 

Amin Zaghal, assistant director general of production planning at the National Electric Power Company (NEPCO), said that the electricity demand increased by 3 per cent since 2016, when the total of generated electricity amounted to 18,721 GW.

According to Zaghal, renewable energy constituted 5.3 per cent of the total amount of electricity generated in 2017, while heavy fuel amounted to 6.6 per cent and diesel was 0.1 per cent. Water, for its part, amounted to 0.3 per cent of the total amount, while the electrical connection line with Egypt contributed 0.3 per cent. 

As for the maximum electrical load, it reached 3320 MW in 2017, compared to 3250 MW in 2016, with a growth rate of 2.15 per cent. 

The transition to imported natural gas for electricity generation and the introduction of renewable energy into the total energy mix contributed to a decrease of the consumed energy bill to around $2.6 billion in 2016, compared to $3.5 billion in 2015.

The annual growth in demand for electricity is estimated at around 3 per cent, while demand for electricity is estimated at about 3 per cent.