Daily guide · DK1 · 2026-08-12
Charging an EV in Denmark West this week: what the prices actually said
All numbers computed from the week's published auction results at publication and frozen — this article is an honest snapshot, not a page that rewrites itself. Reproduce via the API.
The clearest signal this week in Denmark West is the daytime trough. The cheapest charging window averaged 5,31 EUR/MWh across the seven days, while the evening peak averaged 148,50 EUR/MWh. That is a gap of 96 percent between the two periods, and it held consistently rather than appearing on a single outlier day.
The midday window was where the value sat. Every day it opened between 12:00 and 14:00, and on several days the average price fell close to zero: 0,42 EUR/MWh on 8 August and -0,01 EUR/MWh on 9 August. Evenings told the opposite story, running from 104,27 EUR/MWh up to 174,04 EUR/MWh on 11 August. Charging on arrival home would have meant paying peak rates almost every day.
The concrete takeaway: shift charging into the early-afternoon window rather than the evening. On 150 kWh of weekly charging, that timing choice was worth 21,48 EUR this week, which scales to roughly 1.117 EUR over a year. If you can schedule around midday, the saving is not marginal — it is most of the bill.
Every day at 13:00 CET, an auction sets electricity prices for every hour of tomorrow — separately, for each European bidding zone. Those prices routinely differ by a factor of two to three within a single day, because solar floods the middle of the day and demand peaks in the evening. If you charge an EV, that spread is money: the car doesn't care when it charges, only that it's full by morning. This is what the spread looked like in DK1 this week.
96%
cheaper to charge in the best 3h window than at the evening peak, on average this week
5.31 vs 148.5
€/MWh: best window vs 18–21h evening habit (week average)
≈€1117
a year on the wholesale component, for 150 kWh/week of charging at this week's gap
Day by day: when the cheap window actually fell
| Day | Cheapest 3h window | Window avg €/MWh | Evening 18–21h | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-05 | 13:00–16:00 | 1.92 | 149.18 | −99% |
| 2026-08-06 | 14:00–17:00 | 0.5 | 104.27 | −100% |
| 2026-08-07 | 12:00–15:00 | 23.12 | 169.17 | −86% |
| 2026-08-08 | 13:00–16:00 | 0.42 | 163.47 | −100% |
| 2026-08-09 | 13:00–16:00 | -0.01 | 164.73 | −100% |
| 2026-08-10 | 13:00–16:00 | 9.55 | 114.67 | −92% |
| 2026-08-11 | 12:00–15:00 | 1.65 | 174.04 | −99% |
Local time. Notice the window MOVES — sometimes after midnight, sometimes midday when solar peaks. A fixed night tariff catches some of this; following the auction catches all of it.
Automate it in ten minutes
You don't need to read auction results at 13:00 every day — ask the API for the cheapest window and let your wallbox follow it. One call:
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"zone": "DK1", "duration_minutes": 180}' \
https://voltcast.com/api/v1/optimize/cheapest-windowHome Assistant users: the Voltcast integration exposes the same window as a sensor you can automate against; evcc users get a ready-made tariff config. The Home plan (€9/mo) covers one zone of your choice with 7-day forecasts; public pages and widgets let you inspect the data before subscribing. And if you want to charge on a forecast of tomorrow before the auction even publishes, that's the P50 curve — scored publicly every day so you know exactly how much to trust it.
Method & citation. Prices are hourly means of published day-ahead auction results (native 15-minute periods averaged; ENTSO-E/SMARD, attributed). Wholesale-price component only — grid fees and taxes come on top and vary by supplier. Cite as "Voltcast Research, voltcast.com/guides/ev-charging-dk1-2026-08-12".
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