On balance, exports in Austria (APG* control area) amounted to 164 GWh over the entire month (based on the schedules), ending the five-month import phase that began in November 2024. In April 2024, the export balance was much higher: electricity was exported on all days of April due to the particularly good run-of-river feed-in, resulting in a net export of 934 GWh.
Decline in renewable generation
Compared to April 2024, renewable generation in April 2025 (calendar weeks 14-17) fell by just over a fifth (21.3% to be specific). This is mainly due to lower precipitation compared to the previous year. The share of renewables (3,836 GWh) in the total feed-in (4,531 GWh) amounted to around 84.7%.
The decline in hydropower production was particularly noticeable: although it still accounted for the lion's share of renewables at 2,152 GWh, its share of the renewable generation fell by 10.3% compared to the previous year. Wind energy accounted for 955 GWh (plus 7.4 percent share of renewables compared to April 2024), while PV contributed 559 GWh (plus 2.4 percent) to the generation of sustainable electricity.
A strong power grid is the basic prerequisite for an efficient energy transition
With its declines in renewable production, April highlighted the fluctuation ranges of a national electricity system based on renewable energies and underlined the urgent need for overall energy system planning, also beyond national borders, and a corresponding expansion and conversion of the electricity infrastructure.
"Our efforts for a sustainable and affordable energy system are aimed at overall system planning that takes into account the expansion and efficient integration of renewables into the energy system. This requires a high-capacity electricity infrastructure that is adapted to the generation capacities, sufficient storage, a digitalization campaign, and the availability of appropriate reserve power plants. The grid is not everything, but everything is futile without a well-developed electricity grid. An efficient grid infrastructure is essential for a functioning business location, especially because it also ensures the availability of affordable electricity for business enterprises," says APG’s CTO Gerhard Christiner.
A strong grid is necessary to make the volatile, renewable electricity available and to transport it to where it is needed. To avoid grid overloads and ensure a secure supply, the electricity flow is managed with redispatch measures, i.e., the targeted use of controllable power plants.
In April 2025, interventions in the schedule of power plants in Austria were necessary on 16 days to avoid overloads of the grid. This is 2 days more than in April 2024. These interventions cause costs that eventually have to be borne by the electricity customers. In April 2025, these costs totaled approximately 5.2 million euros, costs that reflect the lack of grid capacities. In the first four months of 2025 (i.e., 71 days to the end of April), there was a noticeable increase in the number of days on which redispatching was necessary: 19 days more compared to 2024 (52 days). This also shows the need for more grid capacity.
These costs reflect the lack of grid capacities.
A negative effect, in addition to the costs and rising CO2 consumption, is the "curtailment" of renewable power plant production: For example, wind power plants or run-of-river power plants that would be producing electricity at a certain time are shut down to avoid overloads in the electricity grid. Since the beginning of the year, around 5,297 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity have been "lost" due to these redispatch measures.
These figures illustrate the need for a modern, resilient, overall energy system with, above all, a high-capacity transmission grid infrastructure.
Energy exchange within Austria
The exchange of energy across Austria is managed via APG’s transmission grid. Electricity surpluses in individual provinces can thus be distributed throughout Austria to compensate for deficits.
In April, Lower Austria (407 GWh) and Burgenland (275 GWh) fed the highest volumes of energy into the APG grid and thus made it available throughout Austria. Vienna (193 GWh) and Styria (142 GWh) drew the most electricity from the APG grid.
Responsible electricity consumption
The latest available data show that 4,126 GWh of electricity were consumed from the public grid in Austria in April (calendar weeks 14-17) - around 2.4% less than in April 2024 (4,227 GWh). This is the electricity drawn from the public grid (including grid losses, excluding pumped electricity) in the APG control area. The figures do not include electricity produced and consumed by private PV units.
Tips for saving electricity can be found at www.apg.at/stromspartipps. With the APG Powermonitor, the Austrian population can see the most effective electricity-saving hours and thus make an active contribution to CO2 reduction and system security. The APG Powermonitor can be found at www.apg.at/powermonitor.
APG continually keeps track of the development of the domestic electricity industry and regularly publishes diagrams at https://www.apg.at/infografiken regarding the topics: energy exchange, energy consumption in Austria, renewables production, import/export, electricity prices, etc.
* The APG control area comprises almost all of Austria with the exception of a corridor each in Vorarlberg and Tyrol.
About Austrian Power Grid (APG)
As independent transmission system operator Austrian Power Grid (APG) is in charge of ensuring the security of the electricity supply in Austria. With our high-performance and digital electricity infrastructure and the use of state-of-the-art technologies we integrate renewable energies and reduce the dependency on electricity imports, we are the platform for the electricity market, and we provide access to reasonably priced electricity and thus create the basis for Austria as supply-secure and future-oriented industrial and business location and place to live. The APG grid totals a length of about 3,500 km and is operated, maintained, and continuously adapted to the increasing challenges of the electrification of businesses, industry, and society by a team of approximately 1,000 specialists. 67 substations are distributed all over Austria and the majority is operated remotely. Thanks to our committed employees Austria had a security of supply of 99.99 percent also in 2024 and thus ranks among the top countries worldwide. Our investments of 630 million euros in 2025 (2024: 440 million euros, 2023: 490 million euros) are a motor for the Austrian economy and a crucial factor in reaching Austria’s climate and energy targets. Until 2034 APG will invest a total of approximately 9 billion euros in grid expansion and renovation projects.
Press contact
Christoph Schuh
