energiedashboard.ch: Energy prices

Description

Energy prices on the markets are an important indicator of the current market and supply situation in Europe and Switzerland. Supply (production) is combined here with demand (consumption) and ultimately results in a price for a specific energy product. There are markets for different products. The spot markets give short-term signals from the market: the "Day Ahead" market indicates the wholesale price for the following day. The "Base" product prices indicate the arithmetic mean of the prices for a delivery in the following 24 hours. In intraday trading, energy is bought and sold for delivery on the same day.

This data collection provides information on various energy sources. These include electricity (power), gas, heating oil, diesel and petrol. Different data are used for this purpose. For electricity and gas, data from the stock exchanges are used. In contrast to electricity prices, the data on gas prices are referenced to a base year, as licensing issues still need to be clarified. Other price data is obtained from the Federal Statistical Office.

However, the prices for electricity and gas do not directly result in the end consumer price that private and commercial customers pay to their local energy supply company. These end-customer prices depend, among other things, on the procurement strategy (long-term purchases or short-term purchases on the market) of the local energy supply company. In the case of electricity, the end-user price also depends on the share of electricity produced in the utility's own power plants, the quality of the electricity (renewable or not), the grid costs and levies.

The national consumer price index (CPI) is decisive for end customer prices. It measures the price development (inflation) of goods and services that are important for private households (basket of goods). It shows by how much consumer goods have become more expensive compared to the previous month, the previous year or any other earlier point in time. The index is based on December 2020. The price development is measured on the basis of the basket of goods, which also includes the most important energy sources - i.e. also electricity. The calculation methodology is managed by the Federal Statistical Office.