The price of electricity is out of control: it is already 10 times more expensive than a year ago and experts warn that it will get worse

As expected, the war between Russia and Ukraine is having a huge impact on energy prices, with gas, oil or gasoline skyrocketing and electricity already costing

.

This Tuesday marks a new record and will have peaks in which the megawatt hour will be paid at 700 euros.

The situation is expected to continue, at least as long as the war continues, as gas remains key to Europe's energy systems.

"Europe's entire energy system is highly dependent on gas," says

, professor of Business at the European University of Valencia and an expert in energy supply.

"The commitment made by Germany and many other countries to move away from coal at the expense of gas worked very well at first because gas was cheap, but when we stopped coal-fired power plants and leaned heavily on gas, it was when we realized that we are completely dependent on him and that we have to pay what they ask us because we need it," he explains.

"The trend is not going to be favorable for consumers," he warns.

From that dependency, these sludge that muddy the economy with record prices.

In March 2021 there was already an upward trend -February was a month of very low prices- and it ended with an average of 45.44 euros/MWh.

On Monday the 7th this figure was already multiplied by 10 and the rise will be even greater this Tuesday, when the records are broken again with a new historical maximum: 544.98 euros per megawatt hour.

The average for March 2022 still does not reach 400 euros (at the moment it remains at 366), but as long as the war continues, gas will continue to shoot up and electricity will go hand in hand.

In fact, there is a paradox from both the European Union and Russia: the former

with gas payments, but condemns the invasion and provides arms support to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia accepts sanctions and sentences without turning off the fuel tap.

"Russia keeps its cards, because if it were very angry it would say that it does not sell the gas," says Gómez.

"The logical thing would have been for Germany and the Nordic countries to have decided not to buy gas and try to supply it from other sources, but we don't have other sources," laments the expert.

Bringing it by ship is not only very expensive, but it requires an infrastructure that not all countries have (Germany, unlike Spain, lacks it) and hydroelectric power

.

The German country receives approximately 55% of the gas it consumes from Russia.

"Germany is trapped with the gas," sums up the professor.

Therefore, the stoppage of Nord Stream 2, the gas pipeline that connects Russia with Germany through the Baltic, is little more than a dead letter as

.

EU countries are estimated to pay Russia €600 million every day in gas imports.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz admitted yesterday that Germany cannot sever its energy ties with Russia "overnight."

why the gas

This dependence on gas affects the price due to how the energy market is conceived, which works as a reverse auction.

In other words, it is the energy users who put their needs on the market and then the producers offer the electricity they can generate at the lowest possible price.

However, the set of energy is paid at the highest price that has entered the auction.

That is to say, although a renewable can offer its energy almost for free, it will charge it at the highest price of the 'pool', which is usually that of gas.

In times when the market is not so stressed, the theory is that this encourages investment in renewables, which are much more profitable.

But the process is long and has another problem:

, so when there is no wind or it gets dark, the most widespread green sources are completely stopped.

The other option is hydraulics, "but there is a shortage of water and we have to spend it very sparingly," says Gómez.

"We can use it this week and lower prices drastically by spending the water, but in two weeks we would have no water," he laments.

If there is demand to cover, only gas can prevent a blackout.

"At 4:00 p.m. the system generates about six gigawatts via photovoltaics, an order of magnitude similar to what we have from nuclear power," explains the professor.

But two or three hours later, when the sun goes down, this source falls and you have to look for "a rescue exit": "The rapid response system is the combined cycle, gas, which is like a kind of aircraft engine and

."

Even if it were decided to return to polluting coal, its plants have the added problem that they are not immediate and require between six and eight hours between when they start up and when they start to produce energy.

Not even spring - more efficient than summer both for solar, which is affected by high summer temperatures, and for wind power - will be a panacea.

It can increase its production and give a little respite, but as long as its energy cannot be stored, there will be no turning back: gas and nuclear are the closest thing to a green alternative until the transition is complete.

And, in fact, that is why the EU wants to give them that taxonomy.

Until then, the market will remain stressed, even if the conflict ends.

It should be remembered that already last summer the light first began to lurk and then break records that had not been seen in almost two decades.

In Gómez's opinion, this would only change if the pricing system is reconsidered -something "quite laborious"-, if the economy slows down -with its obvious disadvantages- or, perhaps, if

is chosen that allows move or postpone unnecessary consumption.

"The user does not know if there is energy to spare or lack, if a combined cycle is entering or not; the demand right now is an exogenous variable and the sources come to the aid of the system to cover it", he details.

"We have to use the weapons we have: which are renewables, which are intermittent, storage systems, which are small, and gas."

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