The energy balance is very unstable and all countries must work, primarily on energy independence, while, obviously, the energy transition will have to wait a little, said the executive director of the Directorate for Energy Trade of the Electric Industry (EPCG), Darko Krivokapić.
He said that the latest conflict in the Middle East, which led to a jump in electricity prices, as well as the ongoing crisis, show that energy independence must be worked on, rather than transition.
– All markets are connected and any geopolitical event has a great impact on them. The current situation in Israel has raised the price of electricity for the next year by 20% – stated Krivokapić.
The energy crisis, as he said, is still ongoing, and a longer and slightly more extreme winter in Europe will cause a deficit of energy sources, and therefore an enormous increase in prices.
– The review for last year shows that at the world level, 85% of electricity is from non-renewable sources, that only production from nuclear power plants and oil is in decline. Renewable sources are on the rise, solar covers five percent, wind seven percent, but this is only 15% of the needs and huge funds and resources are needed to replace electricity from coal. I have already pointed out that movements at the global level are turbulent, unpredictable, causing drastic changes, which are reflected in the electricity wholesale markets, and therefore also in ours – announced Krivokapić.
He believes that the solution is for each country to do everything it can to achieve energy independence, when those strikes would be incomparably lighter than the existing ones.
Krivokapić said that since the beginning of the year, we have had a trend of falling prices on the European wholesale market, so the prices from the record highs of last year have come to an acceptable normal.
– For example, the average realized price on the HUPX stock exchange for the BAND profile is EUR 110.99 per megawatt hour (MWh). We will recall that during December last year, this year was traded at a price of around €300/MWh. The reason for the drop in prices can be found in several factors: the mild winter of 22/23, lower consumption of electricity, lower consumption of energy sources, primarily gas. In the first and second quarters of the year, Europe consolidated its gas supply, there was an expansion in the construction of new megawatts from renewable energy sources, but some long-forgotten power plants based on coal, oil and nuclear energy were restarted – reminded Krivokapić.
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