A post-pandemic rise in demand and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are driving up gas and electricity prices, resulting in an energy crisis of a size unseen in fifty years.
Here are the issues and alternatives that nations from Sri Lanka to Britain are dealing with as EU energy ministers meet for emergency talks on Friday:
Prices have risen in an area that has been strongly dependent on Russian supply as a result of Russia reducing natural gas supplies to European Union countries in what appears to be retaliation for sanctions.
Because gas is also utilized to generate electricity, the cost of electricity has also increased.
According to the price comparison website Check24, a typical home in Germany using 20,000-kilowatt hours per year would have an annual bill of 3,717 euros ($3,755) at August pricing, a rise of 185 percent and a record.
Energy costs in Britain have doubled in the last year and were about to increase by another 80% on October 1 to an average of £3,549 ($4,197) annually when the government intervened on Thursday with a new ceiling.
Regulated energy costs in Italy are already double what they were a year ago, while gas prices have increased by 86%.
Prices for all countries that purchase liquefied natural gas have skyrocketed as European nations turn to global markets to replace Russian gas delivered by pipeline (LNG).
With electricity rates in Sri Lanka rising by 264 percent in August, the rise in energy costs played a role in the country’s economic and political crises.
Eskom, South Africa’s major electrical utility, plans a 38.1 percent price increase for 2022–2023.
