The recent European heatwave has driven intraday electricity prices to record highs across Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. Extremely high ambient temperatures have significantly reduced the operational efficiency of solar panels, curtailing solar power output right when cooling demands began to spike.
Concurrently, combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plants have faced degraded performance, losing between 0.5% and 0.9% of their electricity output for every additional degree Celsius. This technical strain culminated during the evening peak, forcing grids to rely on scarcer and significantly more expensive generation sources to maintain equilibrium.
- As a result of this imbalance, Germany‘s residual load climbed to 51.5 GW on June 23rd, roughly 10.4 GW above the typical level for this time of day and year.
- Belgium set an all-time high quarter-hourly price of €1,038.25/MWh for the 15-minute slot starting at 8:45 p.m. CET on the same day.
- The Netherlands achieved a record quarter-hour price of €902.47/MWh.