European Nuke Plants Offline As Power Prices Hit Record
Bloomberg’s Chief Energy Correspondent Javier Blas tweeted a disturbing map of European day-ahead electricity prices that will hit record highs on Monday.
“EUROPEAN ENERGY CRISIS: Wow, wow, wow… I’m running out of words to describe the European short-term electricity market,” Blas said.
He continued, “Multiple records breached for Monday. With the exception of Poland and Scandinavia, all Europe is above €300 per MWh (France and Switzerland near €400).”
The continuation of surging power prices, as Blas explained, is due to “Lots of nuclear reactors are down, demand is high (electricity used for heating), so it’s burning gas to bridge the gap.”
Days ago, we told readers multiple nuclear power plants in France were taken offline due to routine safety inspections that found cracks at one power plant.
European daily power demand continues to soar as colder-than-normal temperatures are present across the continent.
Benchmark natural gas prices surged to a new high last week, up more than 650% on the year, on concerns of declining gas flows via the Yamal-Europe pipeline that runs across Belarus and Poland to Mallnow, Germany; low storage on the continent, and geopolitical risk.
European natural gas prices hit a new record high.
The amount of gas entering Germany at the Mallnow compressor station collapsed. The pipeline only booked for 4% of space for Dec. 20.
The latest geopolitical flare-up occurred last week when Germany’s federal network agency, Bundesnetzagentur, said Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline won’t be cleared until July. On Sunday, Germany said they could entirely block the Nord Stream 2 if a possible conflict between Russia and Ukraine erupts.
Europe’s energy crisis worsens and risks sparking discontent among many Europeans. How long until politicians order utilities to implement price caps on power rates? If politicians want to stay in power, they might also have to subsidize people’s power bills as energy inflation runs wild.
