- German year-ahead electricity futures are down 54% from Monday's high, Bloomberg data shows.
- European policymakers are considering ways to combat the energy crisis.
Europe's benchmark power prices fell as much as 54% Thursday from Monday's high as European Union policymakers consider ways to stem climbing energy prices.
German year-ahead electricity prices hit 486 euros per megawatt hour Thursday after surging above 1,000 euros per megawatt hour on Monday.
Despite the sharp decline, the price remains roughly 10 times the average for this time of year, based on prices of the past decade, Bloomberg data shows.
As the EU discusses interventions in the energy crisis, part of its strategy could include artificially severing the link between electricity and gas costs, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Monday.
Policymakers have floated the idea of a price cap at some point in the natural gas value chain. Another idea that's been proposed is a short-term tax on excessive profits the energy industry is raking in.
"We will look very carefully at what instruments we have that we can use to bring down electricity prices," Germany Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in Prague on Monday. "It's not something that can happen at random, it has to work in a technical sense, but obviously what is being set now as the market price is not a real reflection of supply and demand.
Meanwhile, European natural gas prices declined for a fourth consecutive day on expectations for EU intervention, even as Russia's Gazprom temporarily shuts down the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline.