NEURC sets new price caps on the electricity market

The new maximum prices will come into effect from December 2023

The National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC) has set new maximum price caps for electricity on the day-ahead (DAM) and intraday markets (IDM), Interfax-Ukraine reports.

The regulator has divided the day into four time zones, and the following price caps will apply to the DAM and IDM:

• for hours of minimum load (from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.) – 3 thousand UAH/MWh
• for hours of average load (from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) – 5.5 thousand UAH/MWh,
• for hours of increased load (from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.) – UAH 6.9 thousand/MWh,
• for hours of maximum load (from 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.) – 7.5 thousand UAH/MWh,

The minimum price ceiling on the DAM/IDM market will be 10.00 UAH/MWh.

In the balancing market, the maximum price ceiling will be 125% of the DAM price determined by the market operator for each billing period of the relevant delivery day, and the minimum price ceiling will be UAH 0.01/MWh.

At the same time, the price caps for the 22.00-23.00 time zone were set at UAH 7.5 thousand/MWh as proposed by NEURC member Valeriy Tarasyuk. Initially, it was planned that the price cap would be 5.6 thousand UAH/MWh at this time.

At the suggestion of the regulator’s chairman, Kostyantyn Ushchapovskyi, the commission agreed to introduce the new price caps on November 30 (for the December 1 trading day) to give the market time to prepare. Previously, it was planned to introduce them on November 10.

As GMK Center reported earlier, the last time the regulator revised the electricity price caps was in June 2023, when they increased by 40-80% depending on the time of day. Currently, the price caps for DAM and IDM are determined by three time zones and amount to UAH 3 thousand/MWh for minimum load hours (from 23.00 to 07.00), UAH 5.6 thousand/MWh for medium load hours (from 7.00 to 19.00), and UAH 7.2 thousand/MWh for maximum load hours (from 19.00 to 23.00).