A few important things to realize:
- There's a difference between consumer grid prices and the prices on the energy market. The former are stable and also include a lot of taxes. In most countries it is actually mostly taxes. The latter go up and down depending on who is able to supply. Consumer prices are of course affected but it's less dramatic when 25% of your rate becomes 40% more expensive.
- There are no blackouts worth mentioning. It's not so much that there is a shortage as that there is price pressure on the existing supply because of raised cost. Mostly this boils down to gas cost going up recently for various geopolitical reasons. So, this is not like the situation in Texas earlier this year. Not at all. Nobody is sitting in the dark or freezing.
- Europe has an interconnected grid; so prices are affected everywhere. Places with cheap over production are exporting to places with under production. Probably at a nice profit. Ironically, this raises prices locally as well. So e.g. Norway, which has an almost 100% renewable grid, sees a lot of lucrative demand for energy exports. So, prices go up locally as well. That's the energy market working.
- Europe has peaker plants that burn gas or coal that are switched on when demand is high. That raises cost for producers, which gets reflected in energy pricing. These are plants that are normally not in operation because they are too expensive to operate at this point.
- Gas is used for heating as well and winter is coming. Northern Europe is a bit cooler than usual so lots of places are probably already firing up their gas powered heating systems. That would increase demand and as mentioned, gas prices are high right now.
- Solar is a substantial portion of the market at this point and the amount of light in September is going down. Also August was relatively cloudy. Solar being less effective in the dark seasons is neither unexpected nor unusual. The more solar we have, the bigger the price differences will be. Because when it is there, it is cheap. It's part of the reason lots of legacy plants are now peaker plants. We still need them but not all the time.
So, the system is working. People suggesting that we need more coal, gas, or nuclear need to understand that those are the expensive options in the market right now. They are part of the problem, not the solution. They are the reason prices are high and unstable right now.
Renewable energy on the other hand does not see raised cost; only increased profits. The issue is we don't have enough of it just yet. So, that's a nice incentive right there to get more of it. Particularly offshore wind seems like a nice option lately. The more we can rely on that, the more stable the prices are going to be because we'll no longer need the expensive alternatives. More offshore wind will help. More people with batteries in their house will help. More grid storage will help. Smarter pricing and metering will help.