State of European Power · March 2016

State of European Power — March 2016

Published 2016-04-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-07-13T23:48Z) · reproduce any number via the API

35

negative price-hours across 34 zones in March 2016

27.48

average day-ahead price, €/MWh, across covered zones

6

zones that cleared below zero at least once

March 2016 closed with 35 negative price-hours across the 34 European bidding zones with full coverage this month — 6 of them cleared below zero at least once. Negative prices are no longer an anomaly; they are a structural feature of a grid where solar and wind routinely outrun demand.

The cheapest market of the month was NO4 (average 20.94 €/MWh); the priciest was IT-SICI (43.03 €/MWh) — a 22 €/MWh gap between two markets inside one coupled European system, which is the whole story of constrained interconnection in one number.

CZ logged the most negative hours (10), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to LT: from 11.18 to 95.02 €/MWh (83.84 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -13.45 €/MWh in DK1 on 2016-03-28.

Every zone, one table

ZoneAvg €/MWhMinMaxNegative hours
AT 24.12 0.37 42.47 0
BE 27.12 -0.59 49.3 1
CH 29.21 -5.45 47.13 4
CZ 23.72 -10 46.15 10
DK1 20.97 -13.45 38.34 6
DK2 21.98 -6.04 41.69 4
EE 29.4 11.18 68.39 0
ES 27.79 4.5 59.81 0
FI 27.09 11.18 68.39 0
FR 27.09 1.7 50.78 0
GR 40.76 0 55.01 0
HU 25.84 0.78 58.75 0
IT-CNOR 34.13 10 90 0
IT-CSUD 34.17 10 90 0
IT-NORD 35.14 10 90 0
IT-SARD 34.17 10 90 0
IT-SICI 43.03 12.33 55.62 0
IT-SUD 33.5 10 90 0
LT 30.79 11.18 95.02 0
LV 29.85 11.18 68.39 0
NL 26.14 3.99 48.29 0
NO1 21.42 15.14 37.75 0
NO2 21.42 15.14 37.75 0
NO3 21.62 13.72 38.34 0
NO4 20.94 13.72 37.75 0
NO5 21.41 15.14 37.75 0
PL 36.17 16.39 54.33 0
PT 27.68 4.5 59.81 0
SE1 21.61 11.18 38.34 0
SE2 21.61 11.18 38.34 0
SE3 21.61 11.18 38.34 0
SE4 22.33 11.18 41.69 0
SI 26.35 0.1 67.69 0
SK 24 -10 46.15 10

Method & citation. Hourly means over all published day-ahead auction results per zone (native 15-minute periods averaged per hour); zones with under 20 reported days excluded. Sources: ENTSO-E Transparency Platform, SMARD (CC BY 4.0). Reproduce via GET /api/v1/prices/{zone}. Cite as "Voltcast Research, voltcast.com/research/state-of-european-power-2016-03".