According to the gramwzielone.pl portal, the European Commission has prepared a package of regulations that are to be a response to the drastic increases in electricity prices recently recorded on wholesale markets in Europe. The European Commission has decided to propose, inter alia, introducing a maximum electricity price that could be obtained by energy producers in power plants with relatively low operating costs – including producers of renewable energy, coal or nuclear energy, which were to benefit the most from the situation resulting from rising gas prices.
For electricity producers from these sources, EC officials want to introduce a maximum energy rate of EUR 200 / MWh. The Financial Times reported that the EC’s proposal would assume that EU countries would charge producers selling energy from the above-mentioned sources at a price higher than EUR 200 / MWh.
The excess price obtained from the sale of energy above this level could be used by EU governments to support energy consumers. Experts quoted by Euractiv point out that while the sale of energy for EUR 200 / MWh would allow the owners of renewable energy sources to maintain very high margins, at the current fuel prices, it could turn out to be insufficient to generate profit by coal-fired power plants.