Wholesale energy prices will remain lower in Portugal than in Northern Europe, says Moody’s

The senior vice president credit officer at Moody’s Investors Service, Benjamin Leyre, argued Wednesday that wholesale energy prices will remain lower in Portugal and Spain than in northern Europe.

In a report, Moody’s concluded that wholesale power prices in Europe will remain at historically high levels over the medium term, stating that wholesale power market prices in Portugal and Spain are likely to remain lower than those in northwestern mainland Europe.

Gas prices in Portugal and Spain are lower than natural gas prices in the Netherlands’ TTF – the main benchmark for Western Europe. In addition, these markets are also less exposed to supply disruption from Russian natural gas.

The same report also indicates that there are greater risks in Spain of political intervention on prices than in Portugal where the levels of regulated tariffs benefit from long-term competitive agreements for the purchase and sale of renewable energy, which diminishes the risks of political interventionism.