What's happening in Hungary's power grid right now?
50.000Hz — frequency: the grid's heartbeat · should stay near 50 Hz
Hover over a country or over Paks
Arrow pointing inward: import
Arrow pointing outward: export
National consumption
0MW
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■—in 30 min
Domestic generation
0MW
—
■—in 30 min
Cross-border balance
0MW
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■—in 30 min
Solar share of generation
0%
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■—in 30 min
Paks now
0MW
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■—in 30 min
— of domestic generation
— imports
What does electricity cost?
Day-ahead price now
—€/MWh
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This is the wholesale exchange price — not the rate on a household electricity bill.
Cost of imports
—per hour
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Current imports multiplied by the exchange price: what a full hour would cost at this level.
Since midnight today
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Electricity imported since midnight valued at exchange prices, less export revenue.
Today's day-ahead price
Electricity is sold a day ahead: the dashed section has not happened yet, but its exchange price was settled yesterday.
What does that actually mean? · — of imports
—this many times more than every household in Hungary combined, on average
—this far in an electric car on one hour of imported electricity
—this many electric kettles switched on at once (2 kW)
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When should you use electricity?
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—
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below the daily middle — worth it around the daily middle above the daily middle — avoid tap or hover an hour
Is it raining in the Danube catchment? · 7 nap0mm in the basin today
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The rainfall is a modelled forecast, not a measurement. The blue glow indicates timing only — when rain falling on the catchment could reach Paks — not volume: most of it evaporates or soaks in before ever reaching the Danube.
Paks · up close
The river did not run dry. The cooling-water intakes sit at a fixed height — once the Danube drops below them, the pumps cannot lift water. On top of that, the law caps the temperature of the water returned: 500 m downstream of the outflow channel the Danube may not exceed 30 °C. Together these two limits forced the plant back.
Danube level
0cm
0 m a.s.l. ·
Paks now
0MW
0 MW five days ago
Water temp.
0°C
below the 30 °C limit
The plant and the cooling-water path · schematic
Cross-section of the Danube at Paks
How much cooling water is needed?
Plant fully shut down
2.5m³/s
The plant's design basis assumed the 100-year minimum was more than 1 m higher than the 2018 record. The current level has gone past that assumption.
Scheduled vs. actual grid load · 24 hours0MW below plan
−0MW below schedule · past hour
Below schedule 0 / 0 quarter-hours That’s 0 GWh less than the schedule since midnight
The “schedule” is MAVIR’s own forecast, so the gap includes forecast error — on its own it does not prove deliberate saving, but it shows the direction well.
What the electricity came from · 24 hours
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The layers add up to consumption: whatever is not generated at home is covered by imports.
Where is the power coming from? · 0 MW
Consumption, generation, cross-border flows, Paks output: MAVIR. Danube level, water temperature, discharge: vizugy.hu, Paks gauge. Unit statuses: MVM Paks Nuclear Power Plant announcements. Day-ahead price: energy-charts.info — data source Bundesnetzagentur | SMARD.de, CC BY 4.0, unmodified. Rain forecast: Open-Meteo, CC BY 4.0. Catchment boundaries: HydroSHEDS / HydroBASINS (WWF), CC BY 4.0. EUR/HUF: ECB reference rate. Frequency: Fraunhofer ISE, Freiburg.