Electricity « free » today for 6 hours (and because it is not entirely good news)
Between 11 and 17 due to the poor demand and the very high demand of renewables, the price at which the producers are willing to sell the energy is zero, in practice they give it. But they will receive the incentives (which we pay in the bill)
The Price of electricity today, May 1st, in Italy it will be zero for six hours, between 11 and 17 (as can be seen from the graph). This is the phenomenon – already known, but almost never happened in our country if not during the pandemic in mid -April 2020 and for a few hours – of the Pun (unique national price) null. On May 1st, even if only for 6 hours (the maximum price will be 141 euros in Megawattora and will occur around 9 pm), it will happen: Thus emerged from the counterfeits on the market of the day before, managed by the GMEon which producers sell energy every day. « The price that is formed on the bag – explains Gionata Picchio, deputy director of daily relay – is equal to that of the offer accepted to satisfy the last demand kilowattora and usually this is covered with gas plants. However, when consumption is very low and the renewable offer is high, as will happen today that it is a day of celebration, in a few hours to satisfy the entire request, the wind and sun will be enough « .
Null prices, energy « given »
But why can prices be null? «It happens – explains Professor Giuseppe Zollino – because the question will be half of the usual (22 peak gigawatts expected) while we have 13 wind winds and 38 GW photovoltaic GW installedwhich in those hours will all produce a quantity of energy greater or equal to the demand together. If they worked on the market, those systems for 7 hours would not be remunerated, but they are almost all incentivized ».
A two -sided medal
Null prices are a two -sided medal: If the higher incidence of renewable sources has a beneficial effect on prices and is therefore positive for bills, it is instead negative for the system as a whole. «If the price was always null – comments Gionata Picchio – nobody would invest in plants and the energy transition would block. To avoid it, it is necessary to accumulate capacity. Furthermore, the multiplication of situations of overproduction makes it more complex to manage the network safely and requires plant and management interventions ». And since The costs of investments to create the batteries and to strengthen the network end up in the bill This cancels Ao makes the benefit of the null price drop. « If sun and wind are free – she concludes Picchio – using them to produce energy is not ».
