The electricity price was quite high last week. Due to low yields from renewable sources, the electricity grid had to rely on the gas market. A fortunate coincidence is that the gas price is more than €10 below the peak of two weeks ago.
The electricity price is currently quite stable. On Tuesday, August 29, the EPEX was trading at €109,23 megawatt hours. A day later, the electricity price was at the highest point of the week. On Wednesday, August 30, electricity traded for €112,10. Except for the weekend, the electricity price was consistently above €100. On Sunday, September 3, the price fell to the lowest point in the week, at €83,19.
At the moment the electricity price is higher than the summer average. There is a clear cause for this, namely the arrival of late summer. It is now September again and the sun sets before half past eight. This is noticeable on the electricity market. The share of solar power fell to 21,8% last week. Earlier in the summer, this percentage was often around 30% to 40%. Until now, when the percentage turned out to be low, the wind force always turned out to be reasonably high. However, the latter did not materialize last week. Together, onshore and offshore wind turbines accounted for 8,8% of electricity demand. While more than half of the electricity this summer was generated from renewable sources, the percentage has currently fallen to just under 30%.
Due to the unfavorable weather, the Netherlands had to rely on the gas market for as much as half of its energy demand. Although the effect of this is not too bad, as the gas price is currently under slight pressure. Since the strikes were averted by the agreement between the Australian Woodside Energy and the unions, the gas price has not risen above €40. The gas price has been a lot lower in recent days, between €35 and €36. In addition, there seems to be a good chance that prices will fall even further. At the moment, the threat of strikes at major competitor Chevron also appears to be decreasing.
Lower temperatures
On the other hand, the demand for electricity for air conditioning is likely to decrease. Cooler air is expected to move over Southern Europe. It seems to be cooling down somewhat, especially in Southern Europe. Temperatures of well above 40 degrees are no longer expected and in Spain and Greece, among others, temperatures will average below 30 degrees in the coming weeks. In Northern Europe it will still be warm for a while with temperatures above 30 degrees, but logically it should get a bit colder again after mid-September. Some analysts expect that prices will also fall somewhat in the Netherlands when the warm late summer period is over.