In search of continuity in energy prices | Business

In 2024, we witnessed a decline in electricity prices, which eased the tensions registered in 2021 and 2022 with the outbreak of war in Ukraine. This environment, in addition to supporting moderate inflationary pressure, pushed companies to seek stability in the supply of strategic resources.

In this context, the signing of long-term contracts for the supply of electricity was encouraged (electricity purchase and sale agreements), both in its physical form and in its virtual or financial variable. The sectoral interest in terms of demand is a very diverse composition with the growing importance of companies in the pharmaceutical sector that accompany the usual consumers of this type of product (technology companies, telecommunications companies and large commercial stores). About solar and wind technologies coastal continue to be the main sources of agreements while long periods of maturation of other sources (such as wind offshore), as well as uncertainty regarding the pace of implementation (as is the case with hydrogen) currently pose a limiting factor when it comes to providing information to the buyer.

However, while the pricing context may allow buyers to take advantage of slightly better terms than those seen in previous years, 2024 sees less appetite for signing these types of contracts. Some of the reasons that help explain this slowdown lie in the significant challenges faced by the renewable energy sector, such as ensuring continuity of supply to the buyer, as well as allowing the seller to control the amount of production that is supplied. into products available on the market, without negatively impacting its profitability.

The conflict between security of supply and the ability to cope with different demand patterns has become increasingly relevant as the rapid development of renewable energy sources has highlighted incentive issues related to the behavior of prices at peak times of that energy production. type of energy.

These difficulties may be eased by the signing of hybrid agreements that mix technologies (mainly wind and solar), as well as the nascent adoption of energy storage systems during peak production hours. This is an evolution that will benefit not only the buyer, as they can have a stable source of energy comparable to traditional fossil fuels, but also the seller, as storage solutions and a combination of technologies will allow them to distribute the amount of energy in this way. sell to the market more logically, maintaining the profitability of objects and offering more competitive solutions.