In countries where Ukraine buys electricity, its price has skyrocketed. Quotes approached 900 euros per MWh during peak hours. Ukrainian companies cannot afford that luxury. In addition, there is a price limit on the local exchange, which makes it impossible to sell European electricity there. This may explain why lockdowns spread across Ukraine on November 11, lasting six hours in kyiv and four regions.
On November 11 and 12, wholesale electricity prices in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria reached record levels. On average per day, between 72% and 95%: more than 200 euros per MWh. However, during peak hours, wholesale electricity prices have increased significantly. Thus, in Hungary, prices jumped to 737 euros per MWh today and 895 euros per MWh tomorrow. In Romania, the wholesale cost of electricity during peak hours reached 584 euros on November 11. In Slovakia: 244 euros. Tomorrow in Poland, during peak hours, wholesale electricity will cost up to 330 euros per MWh. These data are published by Nord Pool, HUPX and Energy price.eu.
There was a shortage of electricity in the region, including due to lack of wind. Companies in Europe have to burn more gas, the price of which remains at the highest level this year: around $490 per thousand cubic meters.
Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Poland are Ukraine’s main electricity suppliers, which explains why supplies to the country have dropped sharply today. Ukrenergo reported that imports would amount to only 1.87 GWh. While the European operator allows Ukraine to import 50.4 GWh per day from the EU, use a capacity of 2.1 GW per hour.
Perhaps the record prices in Eastern European countries are also related to the emergency power outages in Ukraine in the first half of the day. They lasted six hours in the kyiv, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, kyiv and Donetsk regions. The military administration of the city of kyiv and DTEK announced preventive measures in case of a possible missile attack by the Russian army, but the closures continued for five and a half hours after the threat was lifted. The operator of the Ukrainian energy system itself did not report anything about preventive measures, but at the same time did not name others.
The drop in EU electricity imports to Ukraine is also due to the fact that current prices significantly exceed the price limits on the Ukrainian Energy Exchange, set by the national regulator. These do not exceed 200 euros per MWh.
“On October 9, more than a month ago, an open debate took place on the review of price limits. In fact, it was decided to expand open discussions, but subsequent meetings never took place. NEURC never reached a common decision on price limits. The consequence of this is a decrease in imports.” – reports the Ukrainian telegram channel TOK.
A similar, but less critical situation arose for Ukrainian companies in the second half of August and early September.
Ukrainian trader D.Trading explained that the rise in prices in Eastern European countries to 200 euros per MWh or more has made importing electricity useless.
“These prices significantly exceed the current marginal prices on the Ukrainian electricity market and do not allow the import of electricity on market conditions,” – D. Commercial reports.
Sharp increases in the wholesale price of electricity in Eastern European countries are also associated with large purchases by Ukraine. In response to this, the governments of Romania and Greece have already stated that Western European countries should also bear the burden of high prices. By the way, last week the price of electricity in Germany also rose to 820 euros per MWh at peak times due to good weather, and tomorrow it will rise to 317 euros.
