A 355 MWh/h electricity amount to be offered to independent electricity suppliers at this Wednesday’s NOME auction appears unlikely to fully cover current market needs, which can be expected to intensify bidding and drive prices higher.

This is an unfavorable prospect for independent players. The System Marginal Price (SMP), constituting the official wholesale price, is currently unsustainably high, and electricity prices abroad are also elevated, which has made NOME auctions the only remaining option for reasonably priced wholesale electricity. But the prevailing conditions are set to end the promise offered at these auctions.

Making the short-term market prospects worse for independent electricity suppliers, the current NOME auction starting price of 36.5 euros per MWh will be scrapped following Wednesday’s auction. A much higher starting price of about 55 euros per MWh, based on certain calculations, is expected to be set for the session to follow in June.

This is another key factor seen driving NOME auction prices higher on Wednesday. The record level of 54.74 euros per MWh could be broken.