After two shivering winters with electricity bills that threatened to empty Swedes’ accounts, we can now breathe a little, according to Christian Holtz.
– It looks much better now.
Electricity is now traded on futures contracts for 80 öre per kWh for the first quarter of 2024, he says.
This year, during the first quarter, electricity on contracts in advance cost 90 öre per kWh, and in December 2022, which was record expensive, as much as SEK 2.70 per kWh. These are the prices the electricity companies pay to buy in the electricity, the electricity consumers also pay tax and network fees.
Filled gas reservoirs
He says that the lower prices this year have several reasons. The most important thing is that the gas stocks in Europe are properly filled. Europe is still very dependent on gas, especially Germany. But there is now plenty of gas there, and that makes the market less worried, he explains.
But the use of electricity has also decreased, and this affects the price of electricity downwards.
– We talk a lot about the fact that the use of electricity will increase in the future. But now it has actually decreased.
In addition, the situation in hydropower storage is good, and the major nuclear power plants in Europe have been producing without problems recently. Last year there were long interruptions in, for example, France. In Finland, the large, new nuclear power plant has also been put into operation.
Days with high prices
But the fact that the forecasts point to relatively low electricity prices does not mean that it will be like that every day.
– We will see short periods of high electricity prices. it will swing. Electricity production has become very dependent on the weather. But the basic scenario is significantly lower prices than when it was at its peak, says Christian Holtz.