State of European Power · October 2018

State of European Power — October 2018

Published 2018-11-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-07-13T23:49Z) · reproduce any number via the API

19

negative price-hours across 37 zones in October 2018

58.61

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

3

zones that cleared below zero at least once

October 2018 closed with 19 negative price-hours across the 37 European bidding zones with full coverage this month — 3 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 NO5 (average 39.74 €/MWh); the priciest was BE (76.05 €/MWh) — a 36 €/MWh gap between two markets inside one coupled European system, which is the whole story of constrained interconnection in one number.

DE-LU logged the most negative hours (11), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to BE: from 24.31 to 232.61 €/MWh (208.3 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -149.99 €/MWh in AT on 2018-10-01.

Every zone, one table

ZoneAvg €/MWhMinMaxNegative hours
AT 61.75 5.2 119.78 0
BE 76.05 24.31 232.61 0
CH 72.97 34.83 108.98 0
CZ 56.18 1 112 0
DE-LU 53.16 -5.94 108.68 11
DK1 47.46 -4.97 112.66 6
DK2 50.88 -0.09 112.66 2
EE 46.37 1.92 81.58 0
ES 65.11 33 84.13 0
FI 46.36 1.92 81.58 0
FR 65.64 19.73 120.55 0
GR 71.43 0 81.75 0
HR 64.1 5.2 135.04 0
HU 64.49 15.06 115.09 0
IE-SEM 73.62 5.69 182.36 0
IT-CNOR 75.28 36.33 139.25 0
IT-CSUD 71.9 36.33 120.13 0
IT-NORD 75.28 36.33 139.25 0
IT-SARD 71.52 5 120.13 0
IT-SICI 71.47 2.44 110.28 0
IT-SUD 68.06 2.44 110.28 0
LT 55.7 1.92 131.5 0
LV 55.06 1.92 93.22 0
NL 59.93 33 112.66 0
NO1 41.78 1.92 49.81 0
NO2 41.77 1.92 49.81 0
NO3 42.93 1.92 50.4 0
NO4 44.03 12.1 50.4 0
NO5 39.74 1.92 49.71 0
PT 65.41 36.33 84.13 0
RS 64.24 15.09 108.92 0
SE1 43.99 1.92 81.58 0
SE2 43.99 1.92 81.58 0
SE3 43.99 1.92 81.58 0
SE4 51.2 1.92 112.66 0
SI 64.05 5.2 120.13 0
SK 61.78 1 115.09 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-2018-10".