Israel Electric Corp coal consumption is expected to decline by around 10% this year due to the shutdown on Wednesday of a 575 MW unit at the company's Hadera power plant, Israeli energy sources said Wednesday.
The sources said coal demand would likely drop by nearly 900,000 mt at the state-owned utility.
The IEC said Tuesday it was shutting down the unit to install FRG scrubbers as part of its program to meet Israeli Environmental Protection Ministry guidelines for reducing emissions at coal plants.
Coal consumption at Israel Electric fell nearly 20% in 2016 to 8.7 million mt over the previous year. The energy industry sources said demand would drop below 8 million mt in 2017 while the work was underway to install the FGD systems.
Israel Electric imports coal from Colombia, South Africa and Australia.
It operates four coal power plants at Hadera and Ashkelon with a total installed capacity of 4,840 MW.
In December 2015, Israel's Energy and Water Ministry and the Environmental Protection Ministries issued a directive mandating a 15% reduction in coal use in 2016 and a further 5% cut in the current year.
Israel has been sharply increasing the use of natural gas for the production of electricity in recent years following the discovery of huge reserves off the country's Mediterranean coast.
