Price levels in new target model markets – the day-ahead market and the balancing market – are showing signs of de-escalation following sharp wholesale electricity price rises over the past month that have caused major unrest among suppliers.

Though balancing market prices over the weekend were at levels of around 20 euros per MWh, even higher than last Friday’s price level of 19 euros, market data indicates these levels will drop tomorrow.

Electricity producers have changed their pricing policy, lowering price offers submitted, which indicates that price reductions should be on the way.

The next few hours of trading will be pivotal in illustrating whether the balancing market price problem is a persisting one or not.

A reassessment of the situation will be made as of today before decisions are made, the energy ministry has announced. Last week, the ministry made clear it would not hesitate to intervene if wholesale prices remained elevated.

“The wholesale market price issue is a very significant one for the Greek economy and, under no circumstances, would we leave it unchecked,” a ministry official told energypress. “RAE [Regulatory Authority for Energy] is examining all available data and the government, too, has tools which it is prepared to use if the situation does not normalize,” the official added.

During the target model’s first month, the balancing market’s cost reached 36 percent of the equivalent cost for all of 2019, which had totaled approximately 200 million euros.