Many EU countries essentially built their grids with Russian natural operating as its backbone. Getting off Russian gas is looking more and more a certainty than a year ago when it was viewed as just theoretical. But that doesn't mean it hasn't come as a huge cost. Importing natural gas from the Middle East and North America or maximizing European sources (Norway and Scotland among others) comes with increased costs. Also getting more natural gas from overseas require additional LNG terminals and that is all being paid for by European utility customers.

Renewables also are very top heavy when it comes to their costs. The initial act of buying and installing them and updating the grid to handle their energy production is a big up front cost. The long run savings come after because wind and solar with facilities with routine maintenance can reliably provide several decades of electricity generation while needing smaller crews to maintain them. Other power facilities such as NG, coal and especially nuclear need large, very highly trained crews at all times for successful operation.

France had to pretty much shutdown large parts of their nuclear power plants due to maintenance and too high temperatures in summer. Therefore imports surged.