So far, in 2022, spot electricity prices are five to ten times higher than in previous years. On August 22, the daily spot market price for Germany exceeded 600 EUR/MWh, 15 times the average of the 2010s.

Germany doesn’t support a price cap on Russia gas because some countries are still dependent on those supplies, Economy Minister Robert Habeck told reporters in Brussels.

Still, gas and electricity prices pared some of their large gains from earlier in the day as traders weighed the intervention plans.

Benchmark energy futures fell after jumping on Monday, with Dutch front-month gas losing as much as 13% and German year-ahead power falling 11%.

Russian flows of gas via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which runs under the Baltic Sea to Germany, remained at zero on Tuesday after Russia scrapped a Saturday deadline to resume flows following maintenance.

That should help to make future decision making easier. But it is not going to help keep us warm this winter or indeed even in winter 2024.

Germany, which has the European Union’s biggest economy, and other countries intend restarting mothballed coal-fired power plants and extending the life of their nuclear power plants to reduce their reliance on Russian gas and coal following its invasion of Ukraine.

Asked if there are guarantees that Gazprom will restart gas flows via Nord Stream 1, the Kremlin's Peskov said: "There are guarantees that, apart from technological problems caused by sanctions, nothing hinders the supplies."

A three-day halt of the Nord Stream pipeline -- a key source of natural gas for the European Union -- starts on Wednesday, and concerns are widespread that Moscow will find another excuse to clamp down on supplies, putting the region at the mercy of the weather.

European natural gas prices on Monday plunged the most since March after Germany said its gas stores are filling up faster than planned.

Bern has been working to build up Switzerland's energy production and storage systems, but even the grand opening next month of a new, powerful pumped-storage hydroelectric plant is unlikely to help avoid problems this winter.

Benchmark Dutch front-month futures fell as much as 16%, partly reversing last week’s jump of almost 40%.

While some countries like Germany, where nearly half the homes rely on gas for heating, are more exposed than others, the European Union is seeking to band together.

The EU’s sixth round of sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine includes a ban on Russian oil, as well as the use by third countries of the bloc’s companies for insurance and financial services.

Russia's crude exports rose by 140,000 b/d on the month to average 3.36 million b/d from Aug 1-16 to remain above pre-war levels for the fifth month in a row,