Electricity producers in Greece do not appear to be profiteering from higher wholesale electricity prices, pushed up by a series of factors, including greater demand amid the hot weather, initial findings of an investigation conducted by RAAEY, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, have shown.
The authority has summoned the country’s producers to a hearing today as part of its ongoing investigation into the escalation of wholesale electricity prices.
Producers are expected to be asked for information on their bids, documentation, and incurred costs so that RAAEY can determine whether these are reasonable or potentially conceal unfair speculation.
Initial findings from RAEEY indicate that the higher prices concern the wider southeast European market and primarily stem from Hungary.
A combination of three factors leading to higher prices has, so far, been identified by RAEEY. Besides greater demand around Europe resulting from the hot weather, unavailability of transmission lines, either as a result of technical faults or maintenance work, as is the case along a line connecting Hungary with Romania; as well as halted production at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant in Bulgaria, now restored, have also been been identified as causes.
Given the temporary nature of the price escalation’s contributing factors, RAAEY believes the adversity will probably have subsided by next week.
One additional piece of information that suggests domestic electricity producers are probably not profiting from the adverse market conditions is their current high level of exports. In other words, domestic electricity producers are generating at lower prices, compared to regional prices, resulting in domestic electricity output being absorbed abroad, energypress.eu reports.
