The “unprecedented” power blackout in Spain and Portugal in April shows that the EU needs new rules to cope with changing energy system demands, the bloc’s energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen said on Friday. montelnews.com/news/8f956c2...

A court in Finland on Friday dismissed criminal charges against the captain and two officers of the tanker Eagle S over damage to the 650 MW Estlink 2 subsea power link. montelnews.com/news/47aaa33...

Conventional back-up plants in Spain failed to operate as planned to avert the 28 April blackout, EU TSO group Entso-E’s latest report showed, according to Spanish grid operator Red Electrica. montelnews.com/news/4b513ee...

Russia inflicted critical damage on Ukrainian gas sites last night in the biggest series of such strikes since the start of the war, state‑owned Naftogaz said on Friday. montelnews.com/news/9da4292...

European TSO group Entso-E identified initial generation losses that increased system voltage ahead of the Iberian blackout in April occurred for “unknown reasons”, it said on Friday. montelnews.com/news/fe38e6b...

Power price volatility should not be seen as a threat but as part of the solution in integrating renewables into the Nordic market, industry executives said. montelnews.com/news/df4eed6...

France is the only country in western Europe currently experiencing a “contango”, where power prices rise incrementally along the curve, experts told Montel, adding that rattled market participants were shying away from purchasing long-term supply. montelnews.com/news/3dca88d...

The EU aviation ETS is a “grievous tax on efficiency in Europe” and needs an overhaul as it distorts energy costs and undermines European competitiveness, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary told Montel. montelnews.com/news/68f59a4...

The move to 15-minute trading in Europe’s day-ahead power market means it is unaligned with continued hourly resolution for cross-border capacity, which is likely to drive price volatility, said Jean‑Paul Harreman, director at Montel Analytics. montelnews.com/news/38d9d3b...

The EU’s hydrogen auctions must focus on the “most mature projects” to prevent the withdrawal of participants in future rounds, the chief policy officer of industry association Hydrogen Europe told Montel. montelnews.com/news/d09aaa2...

Italy’s renewed push for nuclear energy faces steep economic, technical and bureaucratic hurdles, making it unlikely that new plants could start operating before 2030, experts said. montelnews.com/news/1521b41...

A mistake in the capacity allocation between Sweden’s two northernmost spot power market bidding zones pushed spot prices for Thursday evening deep into negative territory and also affected prices in neighbouring Norway. montelnews.com/news/4f11a0c...

Spanish power prices have decoupled from gas faster than other major gas-reliant European countries since 2019, thanks to “strong” growth in solar and wind capacity, energy think tank Ember said on Thursday. montelnews.com/news/7b452e7...

Europe’s cross-border platform for balancing power, Picasso, will continue driving extreme price volatility due to fragmented markets across the region, industry analysts told Montel this week. montelnews.com/news/99f39e4...

Improving grid access and adjusting network charges for electrolysers could help reduce green hydrogen costs by a third, Spanish energy company Moeve said on Wednesday. montelnews.com/news/4028201...

Spain needs to focus on driving power demand because high renewable generation has “exhausted” the current investment model, the CEOs of Iberian utilities Iberdrola and EDP said on Wednesday. montelnews.com/news/fd9e01b...

Nordic day-ahead power prices could surge around 60% by 2029 from current levels due to a lack of new production capacity and steady growth in demand, said consultancy Sigholm. montelnews.com/news/60f608d...

Power grid operators want new EU rules to help them tackle data centre “speculation” and organise the queue for grid connections more efficiently, said senior executives. montelnews.com/news/20d24cc...

The second 15-minute auction on Europe’s day-ahead power market cleared with a slight delay to the publication of prices on Wednesday, after the first run on Tuesday also saw a minor hitch. montelnews.com/news/2265798...

Eni’s CEO on Wednesday backed Italy’s push to lower domestic gas prices despite his company supporting a letter sent to the EU earlier this week urging it to work with Italian authorities to halt the proposal. montelnews.com/news/411c328...

The European Commission hopes to present on 25 November draft EU rules to help energy-intensive industries cut their CO2 emissions more quickly while remaining globally competitive, it said in its latest draft agenda. montelnews.com/news/0a1e5c2...

Traders welcomed the launch of 15-minute trading intervals on the European day-ahead markets, although they agreed it may take time for trading practices to adjust. montelnews.com/news/e708aa6...

Column of the Week: How solar flipped the peak‑baseload spread montelnews.com/news/4b989f3...

Belgian energy firm Electrabel will permanently close its 968 MW nuclear power reactor Tihange 1 reactor at 00:00 CET tonight after 50 years of operation. montelnews.com/news/2dac1ad...

Up to 60 GW of demand-side flexibility could be unlocked by 2035 by strategically integrating data centres into the EU grid, according to a study published on Tuesday. montelnews.com/news/c374c04...

Europe’s shift to 15‑minute day-ahead trading, due to go live for first delivery on Wednesday, could raise the costs of ancillary services in Spain due to the need to stabilise the grid, market participants told Montel. montelnews.com/news/9d1f76b...

Tuesday’s first 15-minute European day-ahead auction showed increased volatility in the spot power market, participants and analysts said. montelnews.com/news/d7aed0d...

Green hydrogen supplies in the EU are expected to reach 1.7m tonnes/year by 2030, but this will not meet potential demand of 2.8m tonnes/year unless the bloc enforces regulations, industry lobby Hydrogen Europe said on Tuesday. montelnews.com/news/fde23b4...

Onsite power purchase agreements (PPAs) are making inroads against customary long-distance deals as technology advances and lower costs make direct renewable supply more attractive to large energy users, experts said. montelnews.com/news/a7163c8...

French energy firm TotalEnergies will benefit from higher LNG prices as the global market is due to remain tight until at least 2028, with the EU set to ban Russian LNG imports from January 2027, the firm’s CEO said late on Monday. montelnews.com/news/646c335...

The shift from hourly to 15-minute day-ahead trading will mean that new German renewable energy units more regularly lose subsidies, as soon as a quarter hour period turns negative, experts told Montel this week. montelnews.com/news/4f0cdd8...

Insufficient synchronous generation capacity – such as gas-fired plants – in southern Spain was the main cause of the Iberian blackout on 28 April, an expert at Madrid’s Comillas Pontifical University said in a report presented on Monday. montelnews.com/news/bb1384b...

The EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) is set to become simpler later this year after EU ministers gave their final approval on Monday for changes to the rules. montelnews.com/news/1f741d6...

Long read: Guarding Europe’s “sitting duck” offshore turbines with sea drones montelnews.com/news/6242a24...

The shift from hourly to 15-minute day-ahead trading, due to go live for first delivery on Wednesday, should better align generation with demand, yet it could also add price volatility to day-ahead auctions, experts say. montelnews.com/news/1a43414...

European gas companies and traders are urging the European Commission to work with Italian authorities to halt a domestic proposal to eliminate the spread between the Italian PSV and Dutch TTF gas hubs. montelnews.com/news/23e4c4c...

Small modular reactors (SMRs) could replace coal, oil and gas as baseload power in Europe, a leader at UK engineering company Rolls-Royce told Montel.

Epex Spot says testing has been successful ahead of the launch of 15-minute auctions in European day-ahead trading next week and that the switch brings "more opportunity but also more complexity”.

Italy’s energy regulator Arera on Thursday pushed back the country’s entry into the European Mari balancing platform from this month to March at the earliest.

The Norwegian government’s fixed retail price scheme for electricity attracted strong interest off the bat when it launched on Wednesday – with 334,000 households signing up so far.

France’s largest energy union has called for strike action by power and gas workers across the country on 30 September and 1–2 October.

Column of the Week - Better together: Europe needs coordination to resolve power paradoxes montelnews.com/news/47437eb...

Belgium faces tough choices to meet a predicted doubling of power demand by 2050 and must either commit to a heavy reliance on imports or plan risky investments in nuclear and offshore wind, said a government agency report. montelnews.com/news/8b9d71e...

EU power and gas TSOs should adopt a “unified” approach when identifying infrastructure gaps to prevent “high energy system costs,” EU energy regulator Acer said in its recommendations to improve the bloc’s rules for electricity grids. montelnews.com/news/071e2eb...

Spot power prices in northern Norway are likely to quadruple to EUR 32/MWh next year if the hydrological situation normalises, an analyst told Montel on Friday. montelnews.com/news/f13c62e...

German utility Uniper has agreed to sell its hard coal-fired power plant Datteln 4 (1.1 GW) to Swiss investment company ResInvest in line with EU requirements for state aid, they said in a joint statement on Friday. montelnews.com/news/0af4bc6...

Europe’s share of Russia’s LNG exports in August contracted to its lowest in nearly two years amid export-terminal maintenance but also possible efforts to reduce supplies ahead of an all-out ban from 2028, analysts said. montelnews.com/news/6dc56c9...

France has commissioned only 276 MW of new onshore wind capacity since the start of 2025 and is on track to hit a 20-year low on new connections amid a “de facto” ban, said the vice president of French renewable lobby SER. montelnews.com/news/080d36a...

The EU should include nuclear power in its rules for green hydrogen to ensure the bloc achieves its goal of net-zero emissions, said a policy adviser for Finland’s main industry lobby. montelnews.com/news/2c3d7ac...

Europe’s benchmark carbon price is set to jump 17% to trade around EUR 90/t by the end of this year in preparation for a tighter EU ETS balance from 2026, Norwegian consultancy Veyt told Montel. montelnews.com/news/cc2e09e...