ELETAEN: Benefit of 2.5 billion euros in 2021 from wind and photovoltaic

Wind and photovoltaic reduced the average market price in 2021 by 46 euros per megawatt hour, thus saving 2.5 billion euros for consumers, according to a study by iWind Renewables, on behalf of the Hellenic Scientific Union Wind Energy (ELETAEN).

According to the study, the benefit for consumers from the participation of renewable sources in the market is due to two reasons:

The first is that RES create a financial surplus that allows the transfer of resources to the Energy Transition Fund to subsidize the accounts. The surplus is due to the difference between the wholesale market price of electricity and the consistently low cost of wind energy. The second reason is that they replace the operation of more expensive conventional power plants on a daily basis.

The analysis carried out showed that in periods of high penetration of wind and photovoltaic in the electrical system, the price in the wholesale electricity market decreases significantly. For example, in December 2021 a 10% increase in the penetration of wind energy in the system led to a reduction in the price by an average of 40 Euro / MWh while a 10% increase in the penetration of wind and photovoltaic combined, led to a reduction in the price by average 34 Euro / MWh.

“Assuming that energy that would not have been produced by RES would have been covered by imported natural gas, the above reduction for 2021 implies that the total savings in the wholesale market is 2.5 billion euros thanks to This means that in the absence of RES, suppliers would have had to pay more than € 2.5 billion for the energy market, an amount that would have been passed on to consumers. is 4 times bigger than the regulated ETMEAR fee “, reports ELETAEN.

SOURCE: AMPE