A meeting on the issue of electricity prices, chaired by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, took place this morning at Maximou. According to sources, an initial discussion was held, and the data on the rise in wholesale prices for July and August was presented. Relevant announcements are expected in the coming days from the Ministry of Environment and Energy.
Reportedly, in addition to taxing excess profits, options on the table include imposing a tax on imported natural gas or reintroducing the revenue recovery mechanism by applying a cap per technology. This would channel the excess revenues into the Energy Transition Fund to be distributed to consumers in the form of subsidies. Although officials from the Ministry of Environment and Energy deny a return to subsidies, the government’s stance was indicated by yesterday’s statement from government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis during a briefing of political reporters. He said, “If there is a need to support citizens or businesses in the event of excessive increases in electricity prices, the state will be here,” but added, “we are not at that point.”
The extreme fluctuations in the wholesale market are also under the scrutiny of the energy regulatory authority, which since last Thursday has been closely examining the offers from electricity producers to verify how they are structured and to check for any speculative practices.
As part of this investigation, all electricity producers—executives from PPC, Metlen, Heron, and Elpedison—were invited to consecutive meetings this morning at the offices of the Regulatory Authority for Energy, to provide additional data and clarifications regarding their unit offers on the days of extreme price fluctuations in the wholesale market. The Authority has requested a detailed report from the Energy Exchange on the hourly offers submitted by producers in recent times.
Market executives, however, do not hide their annoyance at the ease with which the government targets electricity producers. They stress that in a free energy market, prices are determined by supply and demand; when demand increases, prices rise, and when it decreases, prices fall. They argue that with natural gas at 30 euros and facing a purely incidental phenomenon, a drastic measure such as taxing the producers’ excess revenues does not stand.
Almost seven months after the abolition of the emergency measures of the geopolitical crisis, it has been proven that markets are unpredictable. Problems in the interconnected markets of Eastern and Central Europe extend to our neighborhood and affect the Greek wholesale market, while demand driven by the heatwave pushes energy prices to extreme heights. “The sudden rise in prices is explained by numerous factors. However, the uneven nature of the shock underscores that small disruptions in one part of the system can cause large and corresponding impacts over a wider geographic area,” said Nikos Tsafos, energy advisor to the Prime Minister, yesterday.
Indicatively, last week (July 8-14), the average clearing price in the Energy Exchange was 143.97 euros per MWh, marking a 71-week high. The average price was up 38.42% from the previous week (July 1-7). Moreover, last week, the gap between the minimum and maximum wholesale price was huge—from 20 euros/MWh to 600 euros/MWh during the night hours when expensive natural gas units come into the system. Although the average price is falling today, the maximum price reaches 650 euros/MWh.
