Out-of-date map showing high GB electricity prices compared to Europe re-emerges

A map of Europe overlaid with what are claimed to be “the current electricity prices in Mw/h [megawatt hours]” has been shared widely in recent days on Facebook.

It adds: “the discrepancy between the UK and the continent is just huge.”

The map has been circulating on social media for almost a year, and so the figures displayed are not accurate reflections of electricity prices in August 2022.

The graphic is taken from market data published online by the European Power Exchange (EPEX SPOT)—an electric power exchange—which shows the wholesale price of electricity paid by energy suppliers across western and northern Europe.

When it was first circulated last year, EPEX SPOT confirmed to Full Fact that it showed the daily average of European day-ahead prices on 14 September 2021, with Great Britain’s prices being much higher than other countries.

This is not true of current electricity prices.

At the time of writing the day-ahead price of electricity in Great Britain averages £520 (€617). For comparison, the price of electricity in France averages €612, and in Germany €605.

We asked EPEX Spot why GB prices were so much higher than prices on the continent back in September 2021, and will update this piece if they respond.

News coverage at the time reported that the wholesale price of electricity in the UK reached record levels as a result of increasing natural gas and carbon prices and low wind generation.

 A House of Commons Library briefing suggests that there was also an increase in demand for oil and gas in the second half of 2021, as economies came out of lockdown. Supply struggled to keep pace with the higher demand, leading to higher gas prices which fed through to increased electricity prices.