Electricity prices rising due to the weather: here’s why

The dark, windless and colder weather of recent days is pushing wholesale electricity market prices to their highest levels in almost a year.

The price for delivery this Tuesday reaches 137 euros per megawatt hour, the highest level since the end of November 2023. Around 6 p.m., the price per megawatt hour will even reach 325 euros, the highest since December 2022.

The explanations, according to Matthias Detremmerie, energy trader at the supplier Elindus, lie in the sky: there is practically no wind in Western Europe and photovoltaic panels produce little. Added to this are colder temperatures. Finally, reactor 4 of the Doel nuclear power plant, whose capacity is a thousand megawatts, is under maintenance until the end of November.

Matthias Detremmerie does not expect an immediate lull but the situation is not worrying either, because the month of November is traditionally a more complicated month on the electricity market.

electricity price weather