Electricity

Greece had SEE’s highest Q2 wholesale electricity prices, Bulgaria lowest – EC quarterly report

Photo: Pixabay

Published

October 22, 2018

Country

Comments

comments icon

0

Share

Published:

October 22, 2018

Country:

Comments:

comments icon

0

Share

In the South-East European (SEE) region, wholesale baseload prices were the highest in Greece in Q2 2018, at EUR 56 per MWh, while the quarterly average price in Bulgaria had a discount of EUR 22 per MWh. Prices in Serbia and Croatia were by EUR 15 per MWh and EUR 13 per MWh, respectively, below the Greek contracts, the European Commission’s latest report on electricity markets shows.

Similarly to most of the European markets, wholesale electricity prices in the SEE region increased in the second quarter of 2018. While in April the regional average baseload and peakload contracts stood at EUR 49 per MWh, in June 2018 both averages were above EUR 60 per MWh.

According to the Quarterly Report on European Electricity Markets, average wholesale electricity prices in the EU stood at EUR 44 per MWh in Q2, up 18% year-on-year.

Looking at the daily average price contracts in SEE region, Greek prices showed a slow increase and were between EUR 50 per MWh and EUR 60 per MWh during most of the second quarter of 2018. In April and May, baseload prices in Bulgaria, Croatia, and Serbia remained well-aligned and followed an increasing trend, from the range of EUR 20-30 per MWh to EUR 40-50 per MWh.

The steady increase in the regional prices at the beginning of the summer period was also supported by temperatures being several degrees higher than the long-term daily averages, resulting in increasing residential consumption (cooling needs), the report shows.

In June, Bulgarian prices decoupled from the other regional peers and showed a significant discount to Croatia and Serbia.

These lower electricity prices might have been related to increasing nuclear power generation in Bulgaria, as beside domestic lignite-fired generation and hydro sources in the country, nuclear can also ensure baseload electricity production with low generation costs, the report finds.

Low electricity prices resulted in increasing Bulgarian exports to the neighboring countries, mainly to Greece, Serbia and to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Renewables reach highest ever share in EU power generation

In April 2018 the combined share of renewables (hydro, biomass, wind and solar) reached 38% in the EU electricity mix, being the highest since the beginning of the available time series, the report shows, adding that this share is the result primarily of good hydro and wind generation in most of Europe.

In April and May, the total renewable generation in the EU was above 80 TWh.

Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, in Q2 2018 the share of fossil fuels (combined share of solid fuels and gas) decreased from 33% to 30%, while the share of renewables (hydro, biomass, wind and solar) rose from 32% to 37% on average, according to the report.

Tags:
Comments (0)

Be the first one to comment on this article.

Enter Your Comment
Please wait... Please fill in the required fields. There seems to be an error, please refresh the page and try again. Your comment has been sent.

Related Articles

serbia ash cement eps coal Lafarge Elixir Group Moravacem

Serbia’s EPS, industry sign contracts on disposal of ash from coal-fired power plants

07 February 2025 - Power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije will sell 30 million tons of ash to Lafarge Serbia, Elixir Group and Moravacem

Đedovic Handanovic, develope cooperation with Slovenia in the field of nuclear energy

Đedović Handanović: Serbia to cooperate with Slovenia in nuclear energy

07 February 2025 - Serbian Minister Dubravka Đedović Handanović spoke with Ambassador of Slovenia Damjan Bergant about cooperation in the nuclear energy sector

serbia auctions cfd premiums 40 applications bids wind solar

Serbia’s auctions draw significant interest – 40 projects submitted

07 February 2025 - The country launched the auctions in late November and the deadline for applications expired on February 5

EU to exempt 80 of importers CBAM carbon tax

EU to exempt 80% of importers from CBAM carbon tax

07 February 2025 - European Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra vowed to exempt over 80% of companies that are eligible for payments under CBAM