Of:
Paula Westerberg
Published: Yesterday 18.34
NEWS
British pub owners warn of mass closures, the Czech Republic is to rapidly implement a state energy trading company and in France electricity prices have become a matter of national security.
Now the EU wants to reform the electricity market.
- Today's market no longer works, said Ursula von der Leyen on Monday.
Aftonbladet has previously written about the energy panic (energipanik) that is spreading in Europe when electricity prices skyrocket. Countries are taking drastic measures, and this summer Spanish office workers were told to take off their ties to cool off instead of turning on the air conditioning, while France looked to nuclear power.
And the electricity crisis in Europe continues to be a fact. Prices are still soaring and new records are being broken almost daily.
In Great Britain, there is talk of solutions such as fixed electricity prices and that industries should shut down, writes Bloomberg. And several leading pub and brewery companies have come out and warned of mass closures due to the situation, writes CNN.
The EU wants to reform the electricity market. Photo: Frank Augstein/AP
. Electric poles near the town of Kozani in Greece. Photo: Thanassis Stavrakis / AP
National security
The British regulatory authority also came up with a gloomy forecast last week, reports Reuters. In October, electricity bills are predicted to increase by 80 percent. Labor opposition finance spokeswoman Rachel Reeves has said the country cannot wait any longer for action, calling the situation a national crisis. Boris Johnson, with just two weeks left in office as prime minister, has said his successor will present a solution where the most vulnerable get financial help.
In France, the energy crisis has become a matter of national security. President Macron has called a meeting of the Defense Council to discuss possible solutions to protect France from an even worse crisis, writes Radio France Internationale.
EU
And in the Czech Republic, the government submits proposals to quickly establish a state electricity trading company, reports CT24. This is to secure, for example, hospitals and regions' access to electricity.
The Czech Republic, which currently holds the presidency of the European Council, has also called for a crisis meeting between the EU's energy ministers on September 9, reports Reuters.
Ursula von der Leyen.
Ursula von der Leyen. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen / Ritzau Scanpix
The market no longer works
On Monday, it became even clearer how deep the crisis actually is. Then the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced that the EU is looking at a new model for electricity trading, writes Euronews.
- The sky-high electricity prices now expose, for various reasons, the limitations of our current electricity market, she said.
According to von der Leyen, the market does not work because today's system was developed during a time when conditions looked different than they do now.
- That is why we, the commission, are working with an urgent intervention in and a structural reform of the electricity market. We need a model that really works and brings us back to balance.
The system that the EU has today is called "pay-as-clear market". According to this model, the price of electricity often follows the prevailing price of gas, writes Euronews. If gas becomes more expensive, electricity bills will become more expensive, regardless of whether green, cheaper energy sources contribute to the total energy supply.
When it was introduced, the system was praised for its transparency, but since the end of 2021, criticism has started to hail.
Now Spain, Portugal, Greece, France, Italy and Belgium, among others, want to see a decoupling between the prices of electricity and gas.
But exactly what the EU's new electricity trading model should look like, Ursula von der Leyen gave scant information about.
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