Wholesale electricity prices in Greece, averaging 65.5 euros per MWh, are Europe’s highest, well over the EU average of 43.3 eurpos per MWh, according to European Commission figures for the second quarter of 2019. This data highlights the lack of competition in Greece’s electricity market.

Malta’s wholesale electricity of 63.9 euros per MWh ranks the country second, while Poland is a distant third with an average price of 56.4 euros per MW/h in the second quarter, the data showed.

Price levels in Greece are well above those of neighboring Italy and Bulgaria, according to the data. In Italy, wholesale electricity averaged 51 euros per MWh while Bulgaria’s average was 41.2 euros per MWh.

Prices in central Europe were well below. Germany averaged 35.7 euros per MWh, Belgium 34.5 euros per MWh, the Netherlands 39.1 euros per MWh, France 35.3 euros per MWh, the Czech Republic 36.6 euros per MWh and Austria 36.9 euros per MWh.

Greece registered the second-biggest wholesale electricity price rise compared to a year earlier, the increase being 17 percent. Only Bulgaria surpassed this leap with a 22 percent increase. The EU average fell by one percent year-on-year.

These European Commission figures highlight the need for a swift and correct implementation of the target model in Greece in order to eliminate market distortions maintaining the country’s wholesale electricity market as Europe’s most expensive.