Oil and refined products as a silent regulator Read More »
Oil rarely features in discussions about electricity market stability. It is often treated as a parallel energy universe, relevant to transport fuels, geopolitics, and global benchmarks, but largely disconnected from power and gas dynamics. This perception is misleading. In an integrated energy system, oil and refined products act as a silent regulator, shaping costs, flows, […]
When gas balancing becomes a power-market problem Read More »
In a system where natural gas serves as the primary source of flexibility, balancing the gas network is no longer a background operational task. It has become a central determinant of electricity market stability. What once appeared as a technical issue confined to pipeline pressures and storage levels now directly shapes power prices, dispatch decisions,
Spark spread in practice: A SEE focus Read More »
In theory, the spark spread is a straightforward concept. It represents the margin between the price of electricity and the cost of generating it from natural gas, adjusted for efficiency and carbon costs. In practice, particularly in South-East Europe, the spark spread has evolved into something far more complex. It is no longer just a
Gas as a flexible backbone — and a source of instability Read More »
In Europe’s current energy architecture, natural gas occupies a paradoxical position. It is indispensable to system stability, yet it is also one of the system’s greatest sources of fragility. Gas is expected to provide flexibility, absorb renewable variability, and stabilise electricity markets during stress. At the same time, its supply is increasingly exposed to global
Why stability in one market no longer guarantees system stability Read More »
For much of Europe’s modern energy history, stability was assessed locally. If electricity prices were calm, the power system was considered healthy. If gas storage was full, supply security was assumed. If oil markets were well supplied, energy risk appeared contained. These indicators worked in a world where markets were loosely connected and shocks propagated
Short-term disruptions, long-term consequences Read More »
Energy markets are often described as short-memory systems. Prices spike, conditions normalise, and attention moves on. This perception is increasingly misleading. In a tightly coupled energy system, short-term disruptions rarely fade without leaving structural traces. Even when prices retreat and flows stabilise, the system that emerges afterward is subtly but materially different from the one
Volatility without borders Read More »
Volatility used to be treated as a market-specific phenomenon. Electricity was volatile because demand had to be balanced in real time. Gas was volatile seasonally, shaped by weather and storage cycles. Oil was volatile episodically, driven by geopolitics and global supply disruptions. These forms of volatility were analysed separately, hedged separately, and largely expected to
When a shock in one market destabilises the entire chain Read More »
In an integrated energy system, shocks no longer respect sectoral boundaries. What begins as a local disruption, a technical failure, a weather anomaly, or a geopolitical event, increasingly propagates through electricity, gas, and oil markets with speed and intensity that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. The defining feature of today’s energy landscape is
From sectors to systems Read More »
For decades, Europe’s energy debate was organised around sectors. Electricity policy was discussed in terms of generation mix and grid stability. Gas was treated as a supply-security problem, shaped by contracts, pipelines, and storage levels. Oil belonged to a different universe altogether, dominated by geopolitics, shipping routes, and global benchmarks. Each sector had its own
One energy market, three fuels Read More »
For most of the past three decades, Europe treated electricity, natural gas, and oil as adjacent but fundamentally separate markets. They were regulated differently, traded on different venues, analysed by different specialist desks, and governed by distinct political narratives. Power was about grids and marginal cost pricing, gas about long-term contracts and seasonal balance, oil
