Electricity prices soar to all-time highs

The Iberian electricity market shot up in price again today to reach a new record wholesale price with each MWh costing €132.47, beating all previous records which were reached on both Monday and Tuesday.

On Tuesday it had already hit a record €130.53 per MWh after Monday had seen prices skyrocketing to €124.4 per MWh.
In fact, the market experienced eight historic highs throughout August (including over five consecutive days between 9-12 August).
The record prices are being caused by the high price of natural gas on the international markets and the record cost of CO2 emission licences.
On Wednesday, the daily Iberian peninsula market OMIE said that there was high demand for natural gas power stations producing power during the day to offset the lack of wind turbine energy in Portugal and Spain.
Future contracts on the Iberian peninsula suggest that the high prices will continue this week, albeit with a slight reduction: futures for 2 September are at €129 per MWh and for 3 September €127.
It is expected that wholesale electricity prices will fall back to around €100 MWh by the weekend as demand falls away.