State of European Power · December 2019
State of European Power — December 2019
Published 2020-01-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-07-13T23:55Z) · reproduce any number via the API
147
negative price-hours across 38 zones in December 2019
39.31
average day-ahead price, €/MWh, across covered zones
10
zones that cleared below zero at least once
December 2019 closed with 147 negative price-hours across the 38 European bidding zones with full coverage this month — 10 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 DE-LU (average 31.94 €/MWh); the priciest was GR (59.7 €/MWh) — a 28 €/MWh gap between two markets inside one coupled European system, which is the whole story of constrained interconnection in one number.
IE-SEM logged the most negative hours (46), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to IE-SEM: from -11.86 to 205.25 €/MWh (217.11 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -50.43 €/MWh in DE-LU on 2019-12-08.
Every zone, one table
| Zone | Avg €/MWh | Min | Max | Negative hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AT | 38.08 | -0.48 | 70.4 | 1 |
| BE | 36.36 | -10.14 | 88.32 | 8 |
| CH | 40.84 | 3.1 | 70.71 | 0 |
| CZ | 37.27 | 0 | 70.1 | 0 |
| DE-LU | 31.94 | -34.85 | 71.06 | 42 |
| DK1 | 34.04 | -16.09 | 76.47 | 21 |
| DK2 | 35.34 | -16.09 | 76.47 | 13 |
| EE | 39.04 | 1.4 | 76.47 | 0 |
| ES | 33.81 | 0.03 | 64.26 | 0 |
| FI | 38.4 | 1.4 | 76.47 | 0 |
| FR | 36.47 | -0.47 | 88.32 | 1 |
| GR | 59.7 | 0 | 85.4 | 0 |
| HR | 40.11 | -5.98 | 125.01 | 7 |
| HU | 41.08 | 0 | 125.4 | 0 |
| IE-SEM | 45.44 | -11.86 | 205.25 | 46 |
| IT-CNOR | 42.8 | 1 | 78.99 | 0 |
| IT-CSUD | 44.18 | 1 | 78.48 | 0 |
| IT-NORD | 42.28 | 1 | 78.99 | 0 |
| IT-SARD | 41.53 | 0 | 78.48 | 0 |
| IT-SICI | 49.89 | 1 | 155 | 0 |
| IT-SUD | 44.03 | 1 | 78.48 | 0 |
| LT | 38.96 | 1.4 | 76.47 | 0 |
| LV | 39.03 | 1.4 | 76.47 | 0 |
| NL | 37.4 | -3.47 | 77.83 | 1 |
| NO1 | 38.01 | 31.19 | 76.47 | 0 |
| NO2 | 37.9 | 31.19 | 74.03 | 0 |
| NO3 | 35.61 | 3.93 | 49.38 | 0 |
| NO4 | 35.57 | 3.93 | 46.68 | 0 |
| NO5 | 38.03 | 31.19 | 76.47 | 0 |
| PL | 44.55 | 10.55 | 70.54 | 0 |
| PT | 33.68 | 0.01 | 62.81 | 0 |
| RS | 41.19 | 0.53 | 79.35 | 0 |
| SE1 | 35.13 | 1.4 | 49.38 | 0 |
| SE2 | 35.13 | 1.4 | 49.38 | 0 |
| SE3 | 36 | 1.4 | 76.47 | 0 |
| SE4 | 36.69 | 1.4 | 76.47 | 0 |
| SI | 39.52 | -5.98 | 76.47 | 7 |
| SK | 38.91 | 0 | 100.04 | 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-2019-12".