The average hourly price for electricity rose to a record high on Wednesday. But on Thursday the price will rise even further. If you have a dynamic energy contract, it is therefore not a very good idea to, for example, put a casserole in your electric oven between five and six o’clock this afternoon; then electricity costs no less than 1.2 euros per kilowatt hour.
Households with a variable or permanent contract do not notice the high hourly price. They pay the rate specified in their energy contract. About four million people have a permanent contract for one or more years. More than three million people have a variable contract that is usually adjusted quarterly.
About 350,000 households in the Netherlands now have a dynamic contract, 100,000 more than a year earlier. They pay a different price for electricity every hour. They receive the hourly prices for the coming day via an app. They can then take this into account when determining when they use a lot or little energy. Charging your electric car at home at five o’clock on Thursday afternoon, cooking electrically or doing laundry is not a good idea for these users.
Such a dynamic contract also works the other way around; If the hourly price is low, you also pay much less for your electricity. Last summer, for example, the electricity price was often negative around noon. At those times, you pay much less with a dynamic contract than people with a fixed or variable contract. Sometimes, if you have a dynamic contract, you can even earn money by doing laundry, for example.
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Electricity from gas is expensive
The main cause of the high electricity price this Thursday is the weather. “It is gray, so there is little solar energy and there is no wind, so there is hardly any wind energy,” says Martien Visser, energy expert and lecturer at Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen against NOS.
But he says it’s not just the weather. “If there is no sun and wind, the gas-fired power stations have to run faster and there are currently relatively many gas-fired power stations under maintenance.” Electricity from gas is more expensive than from sun and wind and now that there are fewer gas-fired power stations available, the price is rising even further.
And then there is also an international component, says Visser: “Germany has closed many nuclear power stations and is trying to burn as little brown coal as possible. That is why a lot of Dutch electricity flows across the border to Germany.” The electricity price in Germany is even higher on Thursday than in the Netherlands.
Business model of gas-fired power stations under pressure
Electricity production will become increasingly dependent on sun and wind in the coming years. Energy companies see that this puts pressure on the revenue model of gas-fired power stations. The owner of a large gas power plant in Rotterdam is therefore threatening to close the Rijnmond 1 power plant.
Because gas-fired power stations will no longer be profitable in the long term, but we do need them every now and then, a so-called capacity market is being considered. Energy companies then receive compensation for leaving their gas power plant on standby. As soon as there is a shortage of sun and wind, gas-fired power stations can be switched on to compensate for the shortage of electricity.
Electricity price sometimes negative
After ten o’clock tonight, the electricity price will drop back to a normal level of around thirty cents per kilowatt hour, but the unpredictability of the amount of sun and wind will not lead to a peak in the electricity price for the last time.
Statement
I will limit my use of electricity between five and six o’clock this afternoon to save money.