Electricity price rises to new high on wholesale market

The price of electricity in the wholesale market (pool) in Portugal on Wednesday rose again for the third consecutive day to €228.59 per megawatt-hour (MWh), a new all-time high and 12% above the price set for Tuesday.

The price on Wednesday exceeds the €200/MWh barrier for the third time and is the highest in history ahead of the €216.01/MWh recorded on October 1 and the €203.68/MWh verified on Tuesday.

In addition, Wednesday’s price is more than five times the amount the pool marked during the first Wednesday of October last year (€43.02) and is above September’s average price of €156.15/MWh, which was the most expensive month since records began.

In the first five days of October, the wholesale market recorded an average price of €186.66/MWh, which could remove September as the month with the highest price since records began.

Meanwhile, the average pool price for electricity set a new high for Thursday at €288.53/MWh, 26.2% more expensive than on Wednesday.

On Thursday it will be the fourth time that the price of electricity exceeds the €200/MWh barrier, which it first breached on 1 October, a month in which in the first seven days it has already set three all-time highs.

The price hike affecting a large part of Europe is due, among other factors, to the increase in the price of gas on international markets, which is used in combined cycle power plants and which sets the market price for most hours, and the rise in the price of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission rights.