Although so far the course of the price of natural gas is close to 30 euros and the average wholesale price of April is at the same level as March, it is not excluded that they will move higher if the rise in the European market continues.
The relevant remarks were made yesterday by the head of Natural Gas, Mr. Yannis Mitropoulos, during the presentation of the company’s financial results in 2023.
Referring to the international prices of natural gas, he noted that after the records during the energy crisis, the prices have fallen significantly and have recently fluctuated at a level close to 30 euros/MWh. Geopolitical developments do not seem to allow a drop below this level easily even though a few weeks ago the TTF price had fallen close to 23 euros. Although it is difficult to predict the next movements, Mr. Mitropoulos believes that it will continue to move at the current levels, maybe even slightly higher in May, provided of course that there will be no unexpected developments.
Regarding electricity, Mr. Mitropoulos emphasized that the continuous increase of RES in the energy mix, zero prices etc., have brought a significant drop in the wholesale price, with the average price in March being around 63 euros/MWh.
He added that April started very low and that we could probably see a drop in the average wholesale price to 50 euros, if the cold weather conditions in Germany did not lead to a rise in prices in European markets, including Greece. He characteristically mentioned that the large penetration of RES and the zero prices that are presented some days, put downward pressure on prices, but any emergency situation can affect the wholesale price, bringing as an example the cold weather in Germany.
In this context, he considers it possible that April will finally close with an average price close to the levels of March, it is not excluded that a little higher if the rise in the European market continues. If this happens, then the supply tariffs in the retail market will follow.
With reference to the colored tariffs, he said that the demand in general in the market for the blue fixed tariffs has been limited, which attributed to the continuous decline that the prices presented in the first months of 2024. . It is noted that Natural Gas, which was the first company to market a fixed eight-month tariff paving the way for flexible blue tariffs, a move that attracted the interest of 10,000 customers for Natural Gas.
In the present phase, the competition has shifted between the floating tariffs, i.e. the green and yellow tariffs. Most consumers remain on the green tariff, with supply companies pushing the yellow tariffs to attract customers. However, the frequency of switching suppliers remains limited with PPC remaining the dominant player by a wide margin from all other providers and having only lost 32,326 customers in 2023.
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