Electricity prices continue to fall - IWR criticism of the way peak load prices are calculated

The European Electricity Exchange in Leipzig yesterday (04/10/2012) published the electricity prices for September. These indicate that the fall in exchange electricity prices in the spot market continues unabated. Base load power cost on average 4.47 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), which is 15 per cent less than for the same period the year before (September 2011: 5.26 cents per kWh). Peak load power was 12.3 per cent cheaper. The reason for the dive in electricity prices on the exchange is once again the increasing percentage of renewables (+27 per cent compared to 2011).
IWR is critical of the principle underlying the method for calculating monthly peak load power, in that not all trading days are included in the calculation. The average prices for peak load power are therefore by no means as high as they currently would appear to be at first sight. (To the Press Release)


Released on: 2012-10-05