The electricity price also remains fairly stable in the first week of February. The large production of wind turbines continues to put pressure on electricity prices. In addition, Belgium has said goodbye to the Tihange 2 nuclear reactor and the German Ministry of Energy has announced that more than half of their gas-fired power stations will be obsolete in ten years' time.
The price of the EPEX is quite stable compared to the outliers in 2022. On Monday January 30, the electricity price was €103,28. After that, the price fluctuated approximately between €100 and €150. On Monday, January 6, the electricity price was at its highest level of the week. On that day the purchase price of electricity was €166,98.
However, prices sometimes varied considerably within a day. On Monday, electricity was virtually free for several hours and on Tuesday evening the price was around €200. The main reason for this fluctuation was major differences in weather conditions. Wind energy once again turned out to be a dominant factor on the electricity market.
In the Netherlands, 42% of all electricity was generated from renewable sources. Of this, 32,4 percentage points were wind and solar energy. The wind turbines in particular were working hard last week, as no less than 28,3% of all electricity was generated by wind turbines. Due to the large production of green energy, demand from gas-fired power stations lagged behind. Gas-fired power stations were responsible for only 39,9% of Dutch electricity production, which resulted in lower electricity prices.
A lower utilization rate of coal-fired power stations actually caused some upward price pressure. Last week, Dutch coal-fired power stations were still running at 76% of their capacity. This week, coal-fired power stations were only 59% utilized. An important reason for the lower percentage of coal power is work on the Maasvlakte 3 power plant. The work will last until Sunday February 12. Until then, the plant can only supply a limited part of its power.
Developments on the European electricity grid
The Belgian energy company Electrabel reported on Tuesday, January 31, that the Tihange 2 nuclear reactor has been shut down. The closure has been planned for some time. In 2012, impurities were discovered in the outer wall of the power plant. The Belgian Doel 3 nuclear reactor previously closed for the same reason. Like Germany, Belgium plans to replace its nuclear power stations with gas power stations in the longer term. However, due to the gas crisis, two nuclear reactors are allowed to operate longer than planned. Initially, the reactors were to be closed in 2025, but they can now remain open until 2035. Before the closure of Tihange 2 and Doel 3, 50% of all Belgian electricity was generated by nuclear power stations and even now nuclear energy is still the most dominant source of electricity.
In addition, the German government announced that Germany will no longer use most of its gas-fired power stations in ten years. The government expects that the hydrogen infrastructure will be so mature from 2030 that the technology can replace more than half of the gas-fired power stations. It is doubtful whether this goal is achievable. Although Germany is now experimenting with hydrogen on a relatively large scale, there is no practical application yet on the energy grid.