Wholesale electricity prices continue to decline in Eastern European countries. Since July, they have decreased by almost half in Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia. One of the main reasons is that Ukraine has reduced electricity imports.
Warm autumn weather has settled in Ukraine and nuclear power units continue to return from repairs. As a result, there is still no acute electricity shortage and Ukrainian companies have reduced imports as much as possible.
If in July it reached 35.8 GWh per day and remained on average above 24 GWh, in October it fell below 5 GWh. Ukrenergo reports that on October 8, purchases in Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Moldova will amount to 2.2 GWh.
This drop has led to lower electricity prices in the Eastern European countries that supply electricity and in their neighbors. Thus, Hungary provides more than a third of imports to Ukraine and the average monthly wholesale price of electricity in the country in October, according to EUenergy.live, fell to 89.9 euros per MWh, while in September it was at the level of 106 euros. , and in August-July it reached 121 and 136 euros.
The situation is similar in neighboring countries: Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Croatia and Slovenia.
According to the Ukrainian specialized publication ExPro, in July Ukraine imported 838 GWh, in August already 474 GWh and in September 438 GWh.
It is clear that with the arrival of cold weather, consumption in Ukraine will increase and with it imports, which could cause a new increase in prices in Eastern Europe.
The Association of Business Organizations of Bulgaria (AOBE) in July wrote an appeal to the government to take urgent measures due to high electricity prices, caused by hot weather, limited generation and electricity imports to Ukraine.
“Bulgarian companies are once again forced to pay colossal amounts for electricity in the face of declining orders, the collapse of industrial production for 17 consecutive months and the general slowdown in economic growth. “These events are taking place in the context of problems with the budget deficit and risk triggering new inflationary processes.” – the appeal said.
Romanian Energy Minister Sebastian BurdujaIn turn, he called on the European Union to share the burden of assistance among all EU countries.
“Prices in the European market continue to leave us at a disadvantage. Romania has been on the decarbonization schedule and has been a strong supporter of Ukraine and Moldova, but when it comes to price benefits, as in Western Europe, we find ourselves in a different position. “Justice is necessary for all of Europe,” – said the minister.
Prime Minister of Slovakia Roberto Fico He also stated that a systemic solution is needed at EU level.
This year, retaliatory attacks by the Russian military left Ukraine without 9 GW of power plant capacity, half of its generation. For this reason, Kyiv believes that rolling blackouts could last 10 hours this winter. The kyiv regime depends on electricity imports and asks the EU operator to increase the capacity limit. However, so far we are only talking about a small adjustment: from 1.7 GW per hour to 2.2 GW.
At the same time, Ukrainian companies have also become hostages to the situation in Eastern Europe, as they pay market prices. As EADaily reported, in August Ukrainian companies imported electricity from EU countries at an average price of $288 (€259) per MWh. This is three times more expensive than in June, when wholesale supplies were sold to Ukraine from neighboring countries at $91.5 per MWh, and twice as much as in July ($143 per MWh).
Ukrainian trader D.Trading reported that high prices were also the reason why companies reduced imports.
