“The situation regarding energy prices is out of control,” the president of UNICEN (Hellenic Union of Industrial Consumers of Energy), Antonis Kontoleon, said, stressing that “the measures announced 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 had no risk. But in vain”, he added.
He added that “authorities have recommended us to enter into long-term contracts to compensate for the risk of price changes in the wholesale market, which the current crisis proves to be completely ineffective, as there is a price gap between the prices in sunny hours and non-sunny hours, since there is no storage.”
“Astronomical Prices”
As Kontoleon stated, “for two weeks now, the country’s industries have been faced with astronomical prices at 20.00-22.00, around 700-800 euros/MWH, in 3 countries, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, prices that they are not justified by an increase in the production cost that does not exceed 150 euros/MWh (for those operating with lignite). Prices on Hupex have dropped as of today.”
He even noted that “some producers in our country take advantage of the high consumption in the Balkans, the high exports to Ukraine and some malfunctions in the interconnections, obtaining significant profits at the expense of Greek consumers and affecting the country’s production base.”
According to a research “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 UNICEN pointed out that “the country’s industries are unable to roll over these costs. We call on the authorities to take immediate measures to solve the problem, including compensating the industries.”
