Higher wholesale electricity and carbon emission right prices are applying sustained pressure on the electricity market, forcing suppliers to continue activating related clauses incorporated into customer supply terms.

Over the next 12 months, wholesale electricity price levels are forecast to rise to 89 euros per MWh in the low-voltage category and roughly 79-80 euros per MWh in the medium-voltage category.

In response to an ongoing surge in CO2 emission right prices, power utility PPC recently decided to finally activate a CO2-related clause after holding back for months. The move is seen increasing the cost of PPC’s electricity bills to be issued in May by two to three euros, sources told energypress.

CO2 emission right prices reached a new record level of more than 52 euros per MWh yesterday, rising by nearly 3 percent in a day. They have approximately doubled over the past six months and registered a 23 percent increase in the last month, alone.

In February, PPC had announced it would not trigger a CO2-related clause for low-voltage supply, but has now been forced to do so as a result of this persisting rise in price levels.

The more recent rise in CO2 emission right prices has been attributed to several factors, including a gradual rise in consumption levels as the European economy begins to recover, weather conditions, and a new, more ambitious, EU carbon emission reduction target, set last month, of at last 55 percent by 2030.