Europe's energy crisis last winter was "severely worsened" when "vital electricity exporter" France was forced to switch off more than a dozen of its nuclear reactors last winter, said BNN Bloomberg. But Electricite de France SA insists it has now "overcome the issues that cut its atomic energy output by almost a quarter in 2022", raising hopes that European households and businesses "won't have to suffer the threats of blackouts or demands to make drastic demand cutbacks that dominated last winter".
In the UK, Ofgem's CEO Jonathan Brearley has called for ministers to implement a "more rigorous framework" to further protect consumers from rising energy prices. Brearley told The Guardian  that the energy price cap was a "broad and crude" mechanism that was "no longer fit for purpose", with a record number of consumers already in debt to their energy supplier.
The "harsh reality", said Bradshaw on The Conversation, is that in order to avoid "significant gas pierce spikes", Europe must hope for mild winters for the next two or three years, and no major interruptions to gas supply.
European gas prices remain at around 50% above pre-invasion long-run averages, he pointed out.
But on a more positive note, Bradshaw added, European energy reduction plans should see gas demand get "significantly lower", dropping by 40% by 2030.