State of European Power · May 2017

State of European Power — May 2017

Published 2017-06-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-07-13T23:48Z) · reproduce any number via the API

32

negative price-hours across 34 zones in May 2017

35.8

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

5

zones that cleared below zero at least once

May 2017 closed with 32 negative price-hours across the 34 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 25.67 €/MWh); the priciest was IT-SICI (56.42 €/MWh) — a 31 €/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 (8), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to LV: from 9.91 to 130.02 €/MWh (120.11 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -24.00 €/MWh in CZ on 2017-05-01.

Every zone, one table

ZoneAvg €/MWhMinMaxNegative hours
AT 31.74 -3.01 50.3 2
BE 37.2 13.76 82.15 0
CH 33.86 4.07 56.37 0
CZ 33.61 -24 69.96 7
DK1 29.24 -15.1 52.23 8
DK2 29.61 -15.1 52.23 8
EE 30.64 9.91 100.85 0
ES 47.17 25.43 57.15 0
FI 30.66 9.91 100.85 0
FR 34.26 6.02 55 0
GR 45.78 0 65.01 0
HU 42.79 0.13 70.59 0
IT-CNOR 43.09 10.28 97.53 0
IT-CSUD 43.15 10.28 97.53 0
IT-NORD 41.49 10.28 58.01 0
IT-SARD 43.04 10 97.53 0
IT-SICI 56.42 10.28 91.45 0
IT-SUD 43.04 10.28 97.53 0
LT 32.45 9.91 130.02 0
LV 32.45 9.91 130.02 0
NL 35.06 14.83 66.26 0
NO1 28.01 9.91 47.89 0
NO2 27.98 9.91 47.89 0
NO3 29.53 9.91 52.23 0
NO4 25.67 9.91 44.49 0
NO5 27.94 9.91 47.89 0
PT 47.18 29.15 57.15 0
RS 41.49 12.99 69.4 0
SE1 29.55 9.91 52.23 0
SE2 29.55 9.91 52.23 0
SE3 29.57 9.91 52.23 0
SE4 29.69 9.91 52.23 0
SI 40.1 0 65 0
SK 34.26 -24 69.96 7

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-2017-05".