The European gas price has taken a significant step downwards. Higher temperatures are causing the gas market to relax somewhat. In addition, the European Union is considering adopting lower filling targets. In the meantime, prices on the electricity market have fallen due to the higher yield from renewable sources.
The gas price has taken another step downwards. The TTF has fallen by 7,2% this week. Since the peak of two weeks ago, the European gas price is down by 21,3%, at €45,675.
The gas market seems to be relaxing again after a period of strong upward momentum. An important reason for this is the higher temperature on almost the entire continent. In January and February it was mainly on the cold side, which caused the demand for gas for heating to be on the high side. As everyone could notice, it was a lot milder last week. On Friday 21 September the temperature in De Bilt even rose to 17,9 degrees. This caused the demand for gas for heating to decrease significantly this week.
Filling level remains decisive
The beginning of this can be seen in the consumption of the gas reserves. Up to and including 22 February, considerably more gas was extracted from the reserves than average. On 22 February, however, this turned and considerably less gas was extracted. This meant that slightly less was consumed than average. The market expects that consumption will remain somewhat lower than average for the time being, although this requires a considerable amount of energy from renewable sources. This winter, low wind force meant that gas-fired power stations had to operate more vigorously. The expectation is that the wind will continue to blow somewhat harder in north-western Europe for the time being, which will cause consumption to fall slightly.
If this scenario were to come to pass, it would provide clear relief. On Saturday 22 February, European gas reserves were 40,8% full. On average, the filling level on that day is 46,5%. That seems like a relatively small difference, until you consider that reserves were 95% full this summer. Last year, reserves were 22% full after a similar starting point on 64,5 February. In the Netherlands, reserves are significantly emptier. The filling level in our country was 23% on Sunday 28,6 February.
Lower fill targets
Finally, there is another pressure factor from the European Union. The low filling level makes it more difficult to achieve the 90% target again. A document is circulating in Brussels proposing to lower the target. The idea is that the high target effectively increases the European gas price. This seems to create room to accommodate the Dutch and German desire to lower the standards.
Electricity takes a step down
Electricity prices have also fallen in the past week. The highest price of the week was €131,43. The week before, the price only fell below that level once. After that, the price of electricity fell sharply. Remarkably, the price was not lowest on Sunday, but on Monday 24 February, at a level of €78,61.
Renewable energy production put a lot of pressure on electricity prices this week. The total share of renewable energy reached its highest level so far in 2025 last week. In total, the share of wind turbines amounted to 32,2% of total electricity demand. On top of that, solar panels provided a significant share for the first time this year. The share amounted to 17,1% of total demand. This brings the share of the two renewable sources to 49,3%.
The number of hours that the solar collectors are active is still limited, but the peaks are now high again. For example, on Tuesday 18 February, the generation peaked at just under 14 gigawatts. On four of the seven days, peaks rose above 10 gigawatts. In addition, coal-fired power stations were used extensively to reduce electricity prices. In total, 12,7% of electricity was generated by coal-fired power stations. This reduced the total share of gas-fired power stations to 24,3% of the electricity market.