The European Union’s Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) has released its market monitoring reports on electricity and gas for the year 2023. ACER’s electricity report highlights a 3.4% decrease in power demand for 2023 in the EU/EEA (-41 TWh). Additional low-carbon power generation for 2023 amounted to 145 TWh (with +54 TWh for wind, +52 TWh for hydro, +30 TWh for solar and +9 TWh for nuclear), while gas-fired and coal-fired power generation fell by 69 TWh and 118 TWh respectively.
In the EU/EEA, total generation amounted to 2,480 TWh in 2023, with wind (469 TWh) and hydro (448 TWh) generation surpassing gas (361 TWh) and coal (317 TWh). In addition, 613 TWh were generated from nuclear, 200 TWh from solar and 72 TWh from biomass. As for installed capacity, solar (164 GW, +21%) surpassed hydro (148 GW, -2%) but remained behind wind (205 GW, +8%). Gas-fired capacity reached 183 GW (+2%) while coal stood at 107 GW (-2%) and nuclear at 102 GW (stable).
In addition, France shifted from being a net importer to becoming the largest exporter of electricity in 2023 (+50 TWh), thanks to increased nuclear and hydro output. Germany became a net importer (-12 TWh), notably due to its nuclear phase-out, while Italy remained the biggest net importer in Europe (-52 TWh).
The average day-ahead EU/EEA price for electricity stood at €93/MWh, less than half of the average price of 2022 (€219/MWh).
ACER also released its market monitoring report on gas, which highlights an 8% decrease in gas consumption in the EU/EEA in 2023. The EU/EEA notably added 50 bcm/year of LNG import capacity since mid-2022 and boosted gas storage (99.9% gas storage stock at the start of winter 2023-2024 and 59% at the end of winter 2023-2024). The average TTF day-ahead price of gas was €41/MWh in 2023, a significant decrease compared to 2022.