State of European Power · February 2020

State of European Power — February 2020

Published 2020-03-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-07-13T23:58Z) · reproduce any number via the API

258

negative price-hours across 38 zones in February 2020

28.9

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

15

zones that cleared below zero at least once

February 2020 closed with 258 negative price-hours across the 38 European bidding zones with full coverage this month — 15 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 NO2 (average 12.33 €/MWh); the priciest was GR (49.17 €/MWh) — a 37 €/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 (85), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to IE-SEM: from -10 to 161.36 €/MWh (171.36 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -81.66 €/MWh in AT on 2020-02-10.

Every zone, one table

ZoneAvg €/MWhMinMaxNegative hours
AT 29.27 -5.8 55.62 6
BE 28.36 -5.08 55.76 4
CH 34.12 14 52.51 0
CZ 30.54 -5 62.89 11
DE-LU 21.74 -26.15 56.24 85
DK1 17.59 -11.16 59.98 42
DK2 18.83 -11.07 70.76 17
EE 28.09 0.07 77.28 0
ES 35.86 5.1 50.77 0
FI 24.44 -0.2 77.28 4
FR 26.25 -5.09 54.58 4
GR 49.17 0 84.02 0
HR 39.59 10.51 70.35 0
HU 39.84 11.21 71.5 0
IE-SEM 33.02 -10 161.36 56
IT-CNOR 38.99 10.51 63.48 0
IT-CSUD 39.89 10.51 78.25 0
IT-NORD 38.68 10.51 63.28 0
IT-SARD 39.89 10.51 78.25 0
IT-SICI 43.54 0.01 123.44 0
IT-SUD 38.15 0.01 78.25 0
LT 27.76 0.07 70.92 0
LV 28.04 0.07 77.28 0
NL 29.55 -4.25 57.44 2
NO1 12.45 6.54 20.44 0
NO2 12.33 6.54 20.44 0
NO3 13.74 4.67 24.56 0
NO4 13.7 4.67 24.05 0
NO5 12.45 6.54 20.44 0
PL 40.87 11.75 69.22 0
PT 36.03 9.04 50.77 0
RS 39.95 13.04 67.67 0
SE1 14.38 -0.2 70.76 4
SE2 14.38 -0.2 70.76 4
SE3 18.38 -0.2 70.76 4
SE4 18.55 -0.2 70.76 4
SI 39.26 10.51 64.24 0
SK 30.72 -5 62.89 11

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-2020-02".