Irish wholesale gas prices are more than a third lower than they were this time last year.
The July Vayu Energy Wholesale Energy Market Report shows a drop of 35% year-on-year for July, mainly due to an on-going healthy supply, decreased demand, and the drop in oil prices.
In the last month alone, gas prices here have fallen by 7% as the euro strengthens against sterling.
The average day-ahead price for gas – the contract for gas delivery for tomorrow – was 1.37 cents per kilowatt hour in July, compared to 1.48c/kWh in June.
However, Senior Energy Analyst at Vayu Gillian Lawler said North Sea field outages as well as a medium-term outage at a UK gas storage facility will likely bring prices back up later in the year.
She said: “We have not seen the decline in prices that we might otherwise have expected the further we get into summer, and prices are yet to soften significantly in response to the increased availability of LNG (liquefied natural gas) in the UK.
“LNG has been playing a key role during planned and unplanned maintenance and in filling the supply gap as more and more gas goes towards the Continent.”
Meanwhile, the average wholesale price of electricity in the Irish market so far during July is 3.75c/kWh – a decrease of 27% compared with July last year and down 8% compared with last month.
The year-on-year drop in prices is attributed mainly to lower prices for gas, which is the main energy source used to generate electricity in Ireland.
Total wind generation capacity in the island of Ireland now stands at 3,083 MW.
Wind energy accounted for 19% of overall generation in July, reaching a peak of 2,158 MW on 9 July, having the potential to meet over 54% of total electricity demand on the island of Ireland.
Some 16,534 gigawatt (GW) of wind energy has been generated since the start of the year, representing 21% of total electricity demand on the island of Ireland during this period.
