The ejecting of these in the current month, in addition to the exceptional tax on producers’ profits in order to subsidise domestic tariffs in August has opened the public debate on the reasons for this phenomenon. In addition to the unpredictable long heat in eastern Europe, the main reason for the price ejecting is the interconnection of electricity infrastructure between the countries of the whole old continent combined with the fact that the infrastructure (and therefore their interconnection) in eastern Europe (to which Greece belongs) is far behind those of western Europe. An extensive analysis of the content of the European energy interconnection and its problems, which is worth reading, is carried out in an information note by the German Federal Association of Energy and Water Industry (BDEW). According to BDEW, in the past, electricity supply in Europe was a national affair. Today, electricity is traded and exchanged throughout Europe. The 1980s was a time when many things in Europe developed together. Since then, citizens of an EU country can live and work anywhere in the EU. The Schengen Agreement abolished controls at many European borders. And intensive preparations were made to create a common currency. Europe has also come closer to providing electricity. Since the 1990s, a series of laws and regulations released the electricity market within the EU – consumers would no longer depend on their own supplier, but could now choose their supplier among many. On the other hand, the so-called national supply was introduced – through the creation of a cross-border network. Emphasis on security of supply and efficiency “The objective was twofold”, says Katerina Ubfenmaph (Katharina Umpfenbach), head of the infrastructure department and overall system of the German Energy Agency (dena): 1. One was security of supply. Congestions in production can be better offset in a larger system. 2. This large network is more efficient. This is because it allows electricity to be produced where it is cheaper and transferred from there to consumers.” As a result of liberalisation and networking, electricity has become more of a commodity than before. However, a commodity subject to special conditions. This is because supply and withdrawal must always be balanced on the network. Marketing is therefore divided into four areas: The majority of electricity deliveries are agreed quite earlier by a forward contract. There are also purchases for deliveries the following day (day-ahead) or the same day (intraday). In order to maintain the network balance in a short period of time, so-called balancing action is also negotiated, which in extreme cases must be available within seconds. Maintaining the balance of this system is becoming increasingly complex due to the expansion of renewable energy sources. This is due to the fact that volatile energy production from the sun and wind is more difficult to plan in advance than conventional power stations of large-scale old design. This makes a strong, cross-border infrastructure even more important. This is because it makes it possible, for example, to transport electricity from areas with winds to long distances in other areas where there is currently a breeze. Infrastructure is becoming increasingly important After release, transport routes are constantly expanding. However, there are still difficulties in infrastructure. That is why Europe is divided into different electricity price zones, which take into account the fact that, for capacity reasons, an unlimited amount of electricity cannot be channelled from everywhere. “Transboundary connections between individual countries continue to be bottlenecks,” says Leonhard Probst. He works at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems and is a co-manager of the energy-charts.info website, which provides plenty of information about the European electricity network. There you can also find the current data on the different electricity exchange prices in the individual zones. The large price differences between zones are an indication that transport is difficult here. Natural barriers, such as the Alps or Pyrenees, are reflected in price differences. Undersea cables also have less capacity – and the relatively new EU Member States in southeastern Europe are generally less well connected than the European mainland. “You can view it as a shared building,” says Mirko Schäfer from the University of Freiburg’s Institute of Sustainable Technical Systems. ‘Suppliers and buyers are located in different areas, but traded in a common market. However, the market operator must also ensure that the electricity packages fit through the doors.” At times, therefore, there are setbacks in the integration process. For example, the common electricity price zone between Germany and Austria was again dissolved in 2018. “In some cases, this price zone no longer reflected reality,” says Konstantin Lenz, a professor of energy finance at the University of Applied Sciences, Erfurt. This is due to the fact that the common area meant that the pumping operators in Austria, for example, could obtain cheap wind power from northern Germany, which could not actually be transferred to Austria due to the constraints on transport. Redistribution as flexibility option In such cases, so-called rearrangement takes place: the power generators of the congestion point are withdrawn from the network so that the lines are not overloaded. And to compensate for the lack of electricity behind the congestion point, power stations there are growing to fill the gap. As the blending involves paying compensation for the electricity not used, the process entails costs that could be avoided by separating the price zones. To make this past, the European electricity network is constantly expanding. The final result could be a large price zone in which electricity can be moved from north to south and from east to west without congestion in transport – the lowest possible price for electricity exchange will be valid throughout Europe. That would be a win-win situation for everyone. However, this would not mean that standard consumer prices would apply throughout the EU, experts stress. This is because each country decides itself to what extent the net electricity supply price is borne by fees, taxes or levies. In Germany, for example, these represent about half the consumer price. “In addition, Germany traditionally has low basic charges and high prices per kilowatt hour consumed,” says Leonhard Probst. “In France, for example, basic charge represents a relatively high percentage of total electricity price”. Moreover, a pan-European electricity market naturally means that some nations produce more than they consume, while others supplement domestic production with imports from abroad. However, all experts stress one thing: economic efficiency should not be confused with security of supply. “We still have enough capacity in Germany to deal with the known peak loads,” says Katharina Umpfenbach from dena. “Just often it is economically more interesting to buy electricity abroad than to produce it on the domestic market at higher cost”. After all, that is what the common European electricity market is about: making supply safer and cheaper for all associated countries.