Medium-voltage commercial customers are returning to Public Power Corporation (PPC) due to the high electricity prices in the market.
Medium-voltage is the category that independent electricity suppliers specifically targeted when the energy market opened up, due to its high profit margins. The competition later focused on attractive offer and discount packages, with strong competition among market players, but this has now been damaged by the price hikes.
In the first half of 2021, PPC’s market share in medium-voltage category has increased for the first time by about 5 % compared to the first half of 2020. In January-June 2021 PPC’s share in the medium-voltage market rose to 35.3 % from 30.5 % a year earlier.
The reason for such development in the medium- voltage market is the high wholesale electricity prices, that have been automatically passed on to the consumers through the floating electricity prices: the lower the price a company secured last year, the greater the cost difference has been this year .
In 2020, the average price in medium-voltage customers’ contracts ranged around 60-70 euros/ MWh, but at the moment wholesale prices reach up to 100 euros/MWh. The trend of medium- voltage customers shifting back to PPC and the mobility between independent suppliers appears to have continued in the third quarter of the year as well.
