Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and the associated suspension of Russian pipeline gas supplies to Europe triggered an energy crisis in 2022, which called into question the security of gas supplies in Europe and thus also that of electricity supplies. This was compounded by the temporary loss of more than 50% of France's nuclear power capacity. The crisis also had a major impact on the Swiss wholesale electricity market, although domestic production, which is mostly renewable, was only marginally affected. The result was sharply rising prices, especially for end customers, as well as unexpected liquidity problems for electricity producers.

The ElCom technical secretariat recently published an analysis of the market situation in the summer of 2022, which examines and evaluates the developments in wholesale electricity trading at that time: Is the price development at that time comprehensible? How did the market players behave? The presentation will explain the basics of wholesale electricity trading and, based on this, highlight the findings.

Dr Andreas Jöckel has been Deputy Head of the Market Surveillance Section at the Swiss Federal Electricity Commission (ElCom) since 2023. Prior to this, he was Head of Strategic Market Analysis at the electricity company BKW and contributed to basic research in physics.