Electricity price is quite unstable

The electricity price fluctuated sharply this week. On Tuesday, October 10, the EPEX stood at €106,90. After that, the electricity price rose and fell by large steps. On Saturday, October 14, the price dropped to €39,49, but on Monday the price was paid as much as €141,69 per megawatt hour.

Last week we saw a clear divide in the electricity market and the dividing lines were mainly determined by the productivity of renewable sources. On days with an electricity price below €100, a lot of solar and wind energy was generated. If the price was higher than €100, production from the two renewable sources was low. This also involved quite a few hours with a negative electricity price. Last week the hourly price fell no less than 19 times below zero. Saturday in particular clearly stands out. On that day, 75% of the electricity was generated from renewable sources and the electricity price was negative for twelve hours. The upward spikes this week were higher than previous weeks and were once again reinforced by an increase in the gas price. For most of the week, the gas price was above €50. That boundary has not been breached since April 3. This means that the basic price of electricity appears to be definitively higher again.

There is a real chance that the gas power stations will have to work even harder in the near future, mainly due to a possible disruption around the French nuclear power stations. In France, water levels are low in several regions. Due to a lack of cooling water, nuclear energy production has to be scaled down. This has the strongest effect on Germany, which can import less cheap electricity from France. If French nuclear power plants have to scale down, German demand for Dutch electricity could increase. As a result, the Netherlands may have to burn more expensive gas to meet demand.

Grow solar panels
In addition, data from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate shows that solar energy production will have grown strongly again in 2022. In total, the total capacity of solar collectors has increased by 31%. It is striking that the strongest growth was not achieved by the growth in the number of solar lawns, but by solar panels among consumers and SMEs. Between 2020 and 2022, the percentage of electricity generated on roofs by solar panels increased from 17% to 31%. This means that the production of households and SMEs accounts for half of the growth in solar energy.

The network of large-scale installations was also expanded. In total, capacity growth due to new projects was 10% lower than in 2021. According to the ministry, the Stimulation of Sustainable Energy Production and Climate Transition in particular appears to have led to the increase. In total, 85% of the new projects were realized with this subsidy.