State of European Power · December 2016

State of European Power — December 2016

Published 2017-01-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-08-26T20:50Z) · reproduce any number via the API

154

negative price-hours across 35 zones in December 2016

47.71

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

5

zones that cleared below zero at least once

December 2016 closed with 154 negative price-hours across the 35 European bidding zones with full coverage this month — 5 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 27.94 €/MWh); the priciest was TR (218.9 €/MWh) — a 191 €/MWh gap between two markets inside one coupled European system, which is the whole story of constrained interconnection in one number.

DK1 logged the most negative hours (36), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to TR: from 0.43 to 1899.99 €/MWh (1899.56 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -66.93 €/MWh in AT on 2016-12-27.

Every zone, one table

ZoneAvg €/MWhMinMaxNegative hours
AT 37.76 -38.3 90.45 30
BE 54.92 15.35 266.9 0
CH 58.23 36.96 120.9 0
CZ 39.31 -20 96.2 26
DK1 28.4 -53.62 89.25 36
DK2 31.51 -53.62 89.25 36
EE 33.98 4.02 89.25 0
ES 60.49 35.2 75.5 0
FI 33.99 4.02 89.25 0
FR 59.24 15.35 266.9 0
GR 51.11 30 299 0
HU 49.17 19.9 96.2 0
IT-CNOR 57.08 31.4 109.17 0
IT-CSUD 53.88 30.88 109.17 0
IT-NORD 58.16 31.4 109.17 0
IT-SARD 53.81 30.88 109.17 0
IT-SICI 52.06 3 89.25 0
IT-SUD 51.49 10 109.17 0
LT 34.78 4.02 89.25 0
LV 34.17 4.02 89.25 0
NL 43.5 15.35 135 0
NO1 33 26.15 80.29 0
NO2 30.84 26.15 36.95 0
NO3 32.3 11.91 61.9 0
NO4 27.94 20.02 32.8 0
NO5 30.98 26.15 36.95 0
PL 35.83 15.92 146.71 0
PT 60.27 35.2 75 0
SE1 33.06 4.02 89.25 0
SE2 33.06 4.02 89.25 0
SE3 33.13 4.02 89.25 0
SE4 34.29 4.02 89.25 0
SI 49.58 11.57 91.81 0
SK 39.6 -20 96.2 26
TR 218.9 0.43 1899.99 0

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-2016-12".

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