Energy, prices are falling but the gap with other countries remains: why costs are high in Italy

In 2024, the price of electricity on the Italian stock exchange averaged EUR 108 per megawatt hour, well above the level reached in the main European electricity markets: EUR 78/MWh in Germany, EUR 63 in Spain, and EUR 58 in France, with differentials increasing from the previous year. And, even though in the early months of 2025 prices were falling in all European exchanges, the gap between Italy and other countries remains very significant. With obvious repercussions on the competitiveness of Italian companies. Drawing a balance is the presentation signed by Livio De Chicchis, energy technologist at Enea (Study, analysis and evaluation unit) on the basis of the quarterly update of the analysis of the Italian energy system, which was illustrated today during the webinar 'Industry and energy: strategies and technologies to reduce costs without compromising productivity' organised by Mce-Mostra Convegno Expocomfort.

Enea's analysis starts from an assessment of Italian industry's consumption, which accounts for about 22% of total energy consumption. In particular, with regard to electricity, the industrial sector consumes about 45% of the total, making it the largest national consumer of electricity, followed by the service sector (about 30%) and the domestic sector (about 22%), while agriculture accounts for only 2% of consumption.

As for prices, after the peaks reached in 2022 (+533%), values are falling but still remain high. As of the beginning of May, the cost of electricity has fallen by more than 40 per cent since the end of 2024, to around EUR 91 per megawatt hour. This, it is explained, is a much lower cost compared to the peaks seen with the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, but is considerably higher than Germany's 67 euros/MWh, France's 16 and Spain's 15. And with the role of natural gas in price formation still very significant.

According to Enea's survey, in fact, the marginality of gas-fired combined-cycle plants - i.e. the number of hours in which these plants set the price of electricity - was in the region of 60 per cent in all market zones in 2024 and, from 2018 to the present, increased by 5 percentage points in the North market zone and almost 8 points in the South. And what will happen in the future with the growth of energy production from renewables? According to the analysis, which reports data from the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission's science and knowledge service, the role of natural gas as an electricity pricing technology will not be challenged by the increase in green energy capacity. "In 2022 and 2030, at EU level, fossil fuel-based plants will set the price around 86% of the time, while generating 34% of electricity in 2022 and only 16% in 2030".