Danish electricity rates set new record: Why are prices still going up?
The price of a kilowatt-hour of energy reached 8.42 kroner on Wednesday evening, the highest figure recorded in Denmark in the last 12 years.
The cost of electricity in Denmark on Wednesday evening was 8.42 kroner per kilowatt hour. That is the highest during the 12-year period covered by national company Energinet’s data, broadcaster TV2 reported.
The high rate recorded on Wednesday reflects similarly high daily and weekly averages, according to broadcaster DR.
“If we look at the daily or weekly average for electricity prices, they have never been as high as they are now,” Carsten Smidt, director of the Danish Supply Authority (Forsyningstisynet), told DR.
The deputy director of the Danish Energy Agency (Energistyrelsen), Martin Hansen, said that high prices are a result of a combination of factors, all of which contribute to escalating energy costs.
These include the war in Ukraine, low water levels at European reservoirs holding back hydro energy production, the hot European summer, and a lack of windy conditions.
“We are in the midst of something you could call the perfect storm. The primary argument is the war in Ukraine and the uncertainty that creates in the energy markets. That contributes to very high gas prices, and that is passed on to the price of coal, biomass and essentially also oil prices,” Hansen told DR.
“The prices for energy have just gone up very, very much,” he said on the broadcaster’s P1 Orientering programme.
According to Nord Pool, the electricity market that covers Nordic countries, prices are three times as high as the same period last year.
“It’s very, very difficult to say anything clever about future development in electricity prices. We can look at forward prices, and the expectations of electricity prices in 2023 are still high,” Hansen said.
“If I was an industry or a household, I would prepare myself for us seeing high prices for electricity, gas and heating for a good while into the future,” he said.
Analysts also predict costly prices for households this winter.
“We have seen over the summer that the price of natural gas and electricity has continued to rise,” economist Brian Friis Helmer of Arbejdernes Landsbank told DR.
“If prices remain at the current level, an ordinary average family with a variable contract will pay 15,000 kroner more this year than last year for their electricity bill,” he said.
READ MORE: Denmark’s energy agency to look at possible saving measures
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The cost of electricity in Denmark on Wednesday evening was 8.42 kroner per kilowatt hour. That is the highest during the 12-year period covered by national company Energinet’s data, broadcaster TV2 reported.
The high rate recorded on Wednesday reflects similarly high daily and weekly averages, according to broadcaster DR.
“If we look at the daily or weekly average for electricity prices, they have never been as high as they are now,” Carsten Smidt, director of the Danish Supply Authority (Forsyningstisynet), told DR.
The deputy director of the Danish Energy Agency (Energistyrelsen), Martin Hansen, said that high prices are a result of a combination of factors, all of which contribute to escalating energy costs.
These include the war in Ukraine, low water levels at European reservoirs holding back hydro energy production, the hot European summer, and a lack of windy conditions.
“We are in the midst of something you could call the perfect storm. The primary argument is the war in Ukraine and the uncertainty that creates in the energy markets. That contributes to very high gas prices, and that is passed on to the price of coal, biomass and essentially also oil prices,” Hansen told DR.
“The prices for energy have just gone up very, very much,” he said on the broadcaster’s P1 Orientering programme.
According to Nord Pool, the electricity market that covers Nordic countries, prices are three times as high as the same period last year.
“It’s very, very difficult to say anything clever about future development in electricity prices. We can look at forward prices, and the expectations of electricity prices in 2023 are still high,” Hansen said.
“If I was an industry or a household, I would prepare myself for us seeing high prices for electricity, gas and heating for a good while into the future,” he said.
Analysts also predict costly prices for households this winter.
“We have seen over the summer that the price of natural gas and electricity has continued to rise,” economist Brian Friis Helmer of Arbejdernes Landsbank told DR.
“If prices remain at the current level, an ordinary average family with a variable contract will pay 15,000 kroner more this year than last year for their electricity bill,” he said.
READ MORE: Denmark’s energy agency to look at possible saving measures
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