“The situation is out of control,” he said. President of EVIKEN, Antonis Kontoleon, stressing that “the measures announced seem insufficient”.
“When in 2021 all fixed-price industry contracts were broken and reverted to hourly market prices, the industry reacted and complained that price manipulation was taking place since wholesale prices were automatically transferred to retail invoices and vertical participants are not at risk. But in vain to the ears of those who do not listen,” he added.
And he adds that “the authorities recommended that we enter into long-term contracts with PV, PPA, to offset the risk of price changes in the wholesale market, which the current crisis reveals to be completely ineffective, since at sunset the PVs do not produce, but there is also a price difference between the prices in sunny hours and in hours without sun, since there is no storage.”
“Astronomical Prices”
As Mr. Kontoleon characteristically stated, “For two weeks now, the country’s industries have been facing astronomical prices between 8pm and 10pm.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 lignite). Hupex prices have fallen as of today.”
He further 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 failures in interconnections and making exorbitant profits at the expense of Greek consumers, damaging 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 power are now offered at a much higher price than during the last week, in the hours H19-H24. Every day, around 2,000 MW are 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 at 530 EUR/MWh on 10.07.2024.”
The EBIKEN president concluded his statement by stressing that “the country’s industries do not have the capacity to pass on these costs. We call on the authorities to take immediate action to resolve the problem, including compensating the industries.”