Energy
© Belgian
The electricity price will drop below zero on Saturday. Charging an electric car becomes cheap for families with a dynamic electricity rate. Anyone who has solar panels must pay attention.
In a large part of Western Europe, electricity prices have fallen sharply below zero for the first time this year. The sun and strong breeze lead to a lot of renewable electricity being produced, while consumption during the weekend is much lower than during the rest of the week. Besides, it’s a holiday.
In Belgium, the electricity price will be negative from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. the price drops to minus 54.42 euros per megawatt hour. In Germany the price drops almost 60 euros per megawatt hour below zero, in the Netherlands even 125 euros. This is due to the rapid increase in solar power production in our northern neighbors.
It is the first time this year that the price has fallen so significantly below zero, says researcher Joannes Laveyne (UGent). This indicates that electricity producers are increasingly switching off their installations to avoid having to pay for the electricity they generate. This time the gap between production and demand seems too wide.
Free charging
Who can benefit from this? These are Flemish families and professional small consumers with a digital meter who consume electricity at a dynamic rate that changes from hour to hour. They pay the price set on the European electricity exchanges.
According to Vreg, at most 0.09 percent of families (about 2,500) in Flanders have a dynamic contract.
Owners of an electric car have an excellent opportunity for a cheap charging. It is not yet truly free, warns Bart Jocqué, one of the very first small consumers in Flanders with a dynamic contract, because the electricity bill does not only include the energy price. There are also the costs charged by grid companies Fluvius and Elia and the taxes that must be paid on them. Jocqué estimates that charging when the electricity price is at its lowest still costs about 5 to 6 euro cents per kilowatt hour.
Anyone who has a dynamic contract and solar panels must pay attention. Because if the injection of solar power that you do not use in your home is charged on the basis of dynamic rates, you have to pay for it. Jocqué: “It is best to set the inverter in such a way that, at negative prices, only solar power that you use yourself is used.”
2024-04-05 17:56:40
#Saturday #electricity #prices #drop #Western #Europe
