Big dip of 59% in electricity prices – The contribution of RES

Wholesale electricity prices show signs of de-escalation.

In the five days since December 22, when the historical record of 415.94 euros / MWh was recorded until today, the average wholesale price has plunged by 59%. For today in the “next day market” of the Hellenic Energy Exchange the average price for transactions is 171.90 euros / MWh.

According to energy market participants, the vertical drop is attributed on the one hand to the strong winds that blow and therefore the cheap wind farms have entered the electricity generation but also to the fall of the gas prices in the Dutch TTF trading platform. For the same period mentioned above, the price of gas from 175 euros / MWh has fallen to the level of 108 euros / MWh.

Of course, this course is not reliable in terms of making safe forecasts for a long-term fall in energy prices, as the Moscow-Brussels dispute over Nord Stream 2 remains open .

How RES dropped prices

In Greece for the second consecutive day in the energy mix the RES are dominant with a share together with the hydroelectric units that reaches or exceeds 50%. The use of natural gas for electricity production for today is limited to 26.86%. RES correspond to 38.97% and large hydropower to 11.80%.

Thus, cheap RES have the effect of lowering the cost of electricity transactions. Compared to yesterday, a decrease of 10% is recorded, while for yesterday, compared to the day before yesterday, the decrease was 8.22%.

On the occasion of these figures, energy market players emphasize the importance of the penetration of RES in the energy mix and the development of energy storage systems. Especially with long-lasting systems it will be possible to store large quantities of electricity in periods of low prices and then channel them into the system in times of expensive energy costs thus reducing the impact on consumer prices.