The European Union and its energy market system are to blame for very high electricity bills last year, as companies have made windfall profits as production costs remained low, the investigative unit of the Finnish Broadcasting Company found in a study published Monday.
In Finland, electricity prices increased considerably in 2022, particularly following the war in Ukraine. The average price of electricity went from 3.5 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) before the war to an average of 25 cents per kWh within six months between July and December of 2022.
The energy crisis has been an ”energy producer’s paradise” since electricity generation costs have remained the same, Engineering Physics Professor Peter Lund at the University of Aalto told YLE, echoing the study’s findings.
He said the European Union and its energy market system are to blame.
While the EU’s energy pricing model based on marginal pricing practices keeps prices low in normal circumstances, he added that exceptional circumstances like the war in Ukraine resulted in rising prices.
With fossil fuel production being more expensive and determining pricing, consumers cannot now enjoy cheap solar energy, wind power, and hydropower. Yet, since other production costs have remained low, energy companies have made big wins, the YLE study also found.
Finland, together with Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Luxembourg, Latvia, and the Netherlands, have defended the current EU energy market system and its marginal pricing practices.
(Pekka Vänttinen | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
