2024-07-22 03:03:07
“The situation is out of control,” he said president of EVIKEN, Antonis Kontoleon, stressing that “the announced measures seem to be insufficient”.
“When in 2021 all fixed price industry contracts were broken and reverted to hourly market pricing, the industry reacted and complained that price manipulation was taking place as wholesale prices were automatically transferred to retail invoices and vertical players have no risk. But in vain to the ears of those who don’t listen”, he added.
And he adds that “authorities have recommended us to enter into long-term contracts with PV, PPA, to compensate for the risk of price changes in the wholesale market, which the current crisis proves to be completely ineffective as at sunset the PVs do not produce but also there is a price gap between the prices in sunny hours and non-sunny hours, since there is no storage.’
“Astronomical Prices”
As Mr. Kontoleon characteristically stated, “For two weeks now, the country’s industries have been faced with astronomical prices at 20.00-22.00, around €700-800/MWH, located in 3 countries, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, prices that are not justified by an increase in production costs that do not exceed €150/MWh (for those operating with lignite). Prices on Hupex have dropped as of today.”
He even notes that “some producers in our country are taking advantage of the high consumption in the Balkans and possibly very high exports to Ukraine and some malfunctions in interconnections and gain skyrocketing profits at the expense of Greek consumers, hurting the country’s production base.
There is a study last week that mentions characteristics «On the Greek market, the last 2,000 MW of offered energy is now offered at much higher price than during the last week in hours H19-H24. Each day around 2,000 MW is offered on the Greek market in incremental steps, but the first step was offered at 190 EUR/MWh on 04.07.2024, at 300 EUR/MWh on 08.07.2024 and 530 EUR/MWh on 10.07.2024».
The president of EBIKEN concludes his statement, pointing out that “the country’s industries are unable to pass on these costs. We call on the authorities to take immediate measures to solve the problem, including compensating the industries.”