Costs of gas and coal-fired assets roughly equal

Last week, gas prices rose again, exceeding 35 €/MWh. TTF prices for July and August settled at 35.4 and 35.7 €/MWh, respectively. CO2 and gas prices have been moving in a similar direction over the last couple months. However, CO2 dropped nearly 3 euros, closing at 68.3 €/EUA. Consequently, the variable costs of gas and coal power plants were nearly equal.
Last week, the average Dutch spot price was 62.1 €/MWh. Renewable generation increased significantly towards the end of the week. Northwest Europe experienced a lot of wind, particularly Germany had high wind production on Saturday. In the afternoon, prices dropped to -80 €/MWh. The Netherlands decoupled from Germany during the nighttime, making the Netherlands ultimately more expensive. On Sunday, there were ten consecutive negative hours, dropping as low as -35 €/MWh. During the evening peak on Sunday, there was also a quarter-hour where the imbalance price almost reached 2500 €/MWh.
Dutch power prices for July and August rose by about 2 euros to 69.8 and 74.1 €/MWh, respectively. This translates into negative spark spreads of about -22 and -18 €/MWh.

For 2025, gas saw a slight increase: TTF closed one and a half euros higher at 37.4 €/MWh. CO2 dropped by 3.5 euros to 71 €/EUA. The Dutch power price closed half a euro higher at 87.8 €/MWh. The clean spark spread for next year fell by one euro to -9 €/MWh. The clean dark spread improved by nearly 2.5 euros but remains more negative than the spark spread at -15.8 €/MWh.

Weekly changes