Power prices in the top European economies, Germany and France, surged on Monday to the highest level since February amid expectations of an early-autumn cold snap and reduced renewable energy output.
France’s month-ahead electricity price jumped by 4.1% to $89.13 (76.23 euros) per megawatt-hour (MWh) on Monday. The equivalent price in Germany rose by 3.6% to $116.69 (99.79 euros) per MWh, per data from EEX cited by Bloomberg.
“German power prices have risen mainly due to fears about colder weather and lower-than-normal renewable generation,” Yiannis Papamikrouleas, head of futures trading energy markets at DEPA Commercial SA, told Bloomberg.
The weather models predicting colder-than-normal temperatures are also pushing up France’s power prices this week.
Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures, the benchmark for Europe’s gas trading, also jumped on Monday, by as much as 4.1% at 1 p.m. in Amsterdam, as traders expect colder temperatures to raise heating demand across Europe as soon as next week.
The EU had its gas storage sites at nearly 83% full as of October 4, according to data by Gas Infrastructure Europe, but an early cold snap could force some countries to draw from storage sooner than they may have expected.
Last autumn and winter, power prices jumped as falling wind power generation tightened power markets in Europe, with electricity prices in Germany hitting their highest since the peak of the energy crisis in 2022.
Wind speeds in the UK and Germany, where wind power accounts for a large share of electricity output, slumped between October 2024 and February 2025 in the so-called ‘Dunkelflaute’ period in which there is a lull in wind speeds. This sent power prices in northwestern European countries surging and nations have had to rely more on fossil fuels such as Natural Gas to meet demand.
The lower wind power generation, Germany’s largest source of electricity, extended from the end of 2024 to the early weeks of 2025 and coal-fired power generation in Germany hit a one-year high in early February as renewable energy output struggled.
By Tom Kool for Oilprice.com
