European electricity prices are on the rise. The figures of AleaSoft Energy Forecasting confirm this, highlighting a sharp increase in European electricity demand in general. The effects are also clearly being seen on consumption in the main European markets.
In the second week of July, electricity demand increased almost everywhere compared to the previous week. But the Italian market recorded the most significant increase with an additional 12%, followed by increases in the British and Spanish markets, 4.9% and 4.4%, respectively. The growth of electricity consumption is more contained in the French market (more than 2.7%) and in the Portuguese (more than 1.2%). There are fewer signs, however, for the Belgian, German and Dutch electricity markets, with drops ranging from 0.1% to 0.6%.
At the same time, prices in the major electricity markets have risen. The Italian IPEX market recorded the smallest increase, 7%, despite the highest weekly average of 112.83 €/MWh. On the contrary, the EPEX SPOT market in France recorded the highest percentage of price increases, 95% but the electricity price did not exceed 52.39 euros/MWh. In the other markets analyzed by AleaSoft Energy Forecasting, prices rose between 23% in the MIBEL market in Portugal and 64% in EPEX SPOT market in Belgium.
The reason? In addition to the increased demand for electricity, the generalized decrease in wind energy production has also had a weight. In detail, the French market recorded the greatest fall, 49% from the previous week, followed by falls of 42% in the German market and 33% in the Italian market. The Spanish market fell by 10%, while the Portuguese market had the smallest drop, 5.7%.
The performance of the photovoltaic system is good. In this case, production has increased in the main European electricity markets compared to the previous week. “The German market recorded the greatest growth, amounting to 23%, followed by 16% growth in the French market and 12% in the Italian market. In the Iberian Peninsula, the increase was 5.7% in Spain and 1.7% in Portugal. In Spain’s case, solar energy production includes solar photovoltaic energy and solar thermoelectric energy. In the Italian market, solar power generation increased for the third week, while in Portugal and Spain it was the second consecutive week of increases”.