Filenews 3 October 2025 - by Chrysanthos Manoli
The absence of significant technical problems and the smooth processing of the day-ahead market and commercial transactions were the most important data recorded by the competent officials to the Transmission Operator during the first three days of the competitive electricity market.
The director of the operation of the market, Konstantinos Varnava, told Fileleftheros that both the prices and quantities of energy that were bought and sold moved to the expected levels and reiterated that it will be necessary to give the new system enough time to be able to draw safe conclusions.
Of the first three pre-day markets that were held, the one related to the commercial transactions of October 1 was separate, as, as is usually the case, energy consumption on public holidays is quite reduced compared to working days. The low consumption led to the phenomenon on October 1, specifically from 10.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m., to "lock", after the clearance, zero prices. That is, electricity was sold by RES producers to suppliers at a price of zero cents per kilowatt hour. This happened because in the day-ahead market, during these hours, there was no need to buy electricity from conventional EAC units and all the energy sold came from RES systems.
This four-hour period on October 1 was the only one of the three days in which zero values were recorded after the liquidation. In the remaining days and hours, what was expected happened: Production from RES is sold at the price of the energy produced by the EAC per half hour, which leads to RES prices much higher than the cost of production. And this is predicted by the market model itself (Target Model).
From the few first samples, it is confirmed that in the mornings, between 6 and 8 am, the wholesale price of electricity is skyrocketing (about 17.5 cents per kilowatt hour), as it comes exclusively from EAC units. After 8 a.m. The price drops to 16 – 16.5 cents per kilowatt hour and after 3 p.m. the price increase begins, to reach its peak (about 17.5 cents) around 8 pm, when the EAC units are mobilized again, even the less economical – efficient ones.
In short, when only EAC units produce, we have the high prices corresponding to the EAC production costs - from oil. And when both RES and EAC participate, we again have the high prices from the cost of the EAC. We will have zero prices in the limited, as many technocrats predict, cases where the electricity needs in the pre-day market, in some half an hour, will only be covered by RES. This can happen in some half-hours on holidays or weekends.
In addition, according to the European Target Model that governs the market, when in the evening hours it is required to utilize cost-effective and economically unprofitable EAC units in the same half hour, the final price will be locked in the cost of the most expensive unit as if the cheapest units of the Authority are not used.
