European officials to talk about energy price cap amid skyrocketing costs

The European Commission is currently seeking to find options to cap energy prices and reduce electricity demand on Thursday. It is considering as part of a strategy to deal with the steep rise in energy costs partly caused by fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“There’s a crisis now. I think we are all extremely aware and the energy prices both gas and electricity bills are high as we’ve never seen before,” deputy director general of the commission’s energy department Mechthild Wörsdörfer stated on Thursday.

“There’s speculation, there’s uncertainty in the market and that’s why we are looking even more intensively right now what else needs to be done.”

Prices have climbed since Russia’s Gazprom announced that it would shut down the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline for three days starting Wednesday to perform maintenance work, reigniting fears that Moscow could completely shut off gas to Europe.

Europe is desperately trying to obtain gas supplies that cannot be cut at Moscow’s whim after the Kremlin signalled its willingness to punish the bloc for its support of Ukraine.

“There is work on emergency measures on electricity prices. There might be also something on demand reduction for electricity,” Wörsdörfer said during a European Parliament energy committee meeting on winter preparedness.

Wörsdörfer pointed that the European Commission is looking in the “medium to long term” to change their electricity market design, adding it “takes time.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to outline the commission’s plan to deal with energy prices on September 14, According to Wörsdörfer.

Energy ministers from EU Member States are expected to meet on 9 September in Brussels for an emergency meeting.