In the third week of October, prices in the main European electricity markets remained stable, with a certain upward trend compared to the previous week in most cases. However, in the MIBEL market of Spain and Portugal, prices fell by 37% and 38%, respectively. In the EPEX SPOT market of France, a slight decline of 1.2% was also registered.
On the other hand, the largest percentage price rise, 141%, was reached in the Nord Pool market of the Nordic countries, while the smallest increase, 2.7%, was registered in the IPEX market of Italy. In the remaining markets, prices increased between 3.7% in the EPEX SPOT market of Belgium and 21% in the EPEX SPOT market of Germany.
In the third week of October, weekly averages were below 95 euros/MWh in most of the analyzed European electricity markets. The exceptions were the British and Italian markets, where prices were 103.08 euros/MWh and 149.23 euros/MWh, respectively. In contrast, the lowest average price, 22.29 euors/MWh, was reached in the Nordic market. In the rest of the analyzed markets, prices ranged from 77.98 euros/MWh in in the Portuguese market to 94.45 euros/MWh in in the German market.
On October 16, the highest hourly prices of the week were registered in most of the analyzed European electricity markets. On that day, the TTF gas price in the spot market was the highest in the third week of October, exceeding 50/MWh. In the German, Belgian, French, Italian and Dutch markets, from 19:00 to 20:00, a price of 240.00 euros/MWh was reached. This price was the highest since August 24 in the French and Italian markets. In the N2EX market of the United Kingdom, on October 16, from 19:00 to 20:00, the highest price since January, 241.19 £/MWh, was reached. Also at that time, on the same day, the highest price since January was registered on the Spanish market, which was 220.00/MWh.
In the case of the Portuguese and Nordic markets, peak prices were not as high. Moreover, the highest prices were reached on October 23. On the Portuguese market, a price of 215.02 euros/MWh was registered from 20:00 to 21:00, the highest price since the end of January. In the Nordic market, from 8:00 to 9:00, a price of 87.66 euros/MWh was reached, the highest price since the end of June in this market.
During the week of October 16, the rise in the average price of gas, the increase in demand in most markets and the general decline in solar energy production led to higher prices in the European electricity markets. In the case of the German market, wind energy production also fell, contributing to the price increase in this market. On the other hand, the production with this technology increased considerably on the Iberian Peninsula and in France, leading to lower prices in the MIBEL and French markets.
AleaSoft Energy Forecasting’s price forecasts indicate that in the fourth week of October prices in most analyzed European electricity markets might increase, influenced by lower wind energy production and higher demand in most markets.