The Tihange 3 and Doel 2 nuclear reactors may be shut down, but electricity prices will be negative on the market this Saturday. Tihange 3 has been shut down since Monday, an unplanned shutdown, and the reactor should not restart before October 15. As for Doel 2, it has also been unexpectedly shut down since Thursday.
The latter offers a capacity of 445 MW while Tihange 3 has a capacity of 1,038 MW. And yet, the reference prices for electricity on the Belgian market in the short term (day-ahead) will be negative this Saturday. On Friday, the MWh is paid on average 140.66 euros on this market but, for Saturday between 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., the prices are below zero: -76 euros.
Saturday noon, Doel 2 should restart, but the reactor will initially only run at a third of its power. The reason for the negative prices lies elsewhere. On Saturday, the production of renewable energies should be significant, with a sunny day and mild temperatures. In other words, if Doel 2 and Tihange 3 had operated normally, prices would have been even lower.
Natural gas prices are also falling. On the day-ahead market, the price of natural gas even fell this week to 80 euros per MWh. Gas reserves are currently full and temperatures are relatively mild.