State of European Power · May 2020
State of European Power — May 2020
Published 2020-06-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-07-13T23:57Z) · reproduce any number via the API
353
negative price-hours across 38 zones in May 2020
18.78
average day-ahead price, €/MWh, across covered zones
13
zones that cleared below zero at least once
May 2020 closed with 353 negative price-hours across the 38 European bidding zones with full coverage this month — 13 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 7.16 €/MWh); the priciest was PL (38.55 €/MWh) — a 31 €/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 (41), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to FI: from 0.94 to 126.43 €/MWh (125.49 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -74.97 €/MWh in DE-LU on 2020-05-24.
Every zone, one table
| Zone | Avg €/MWh | Min | Max | Negative hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AT | 17.81 | -57.72 | 47.05 | 30 |
| BE | 15.41 | -54.73 | 32.01 | 35 |
| CH | 16.86 | -59.61 | 30.98 | 27 |
| CZ | 18.1 | -65 | 52.1 | 37 |
| DE-LU | 17.72 | -69.62 | 52.98 | 41 |
| DK1 | 16.06 | -15.04 | 57 | 27 |
| DK2 | 19.05 | -15.04 | 60.52 | 27 |
| EE | 25.02 | 0.94 | 126.43 | 0 |
| ES | 21.33 | 1.02 | 36.19 | 0 |
| FI | 19.46 | 0.94 | 126.43 | 0 |
| FR | 14.87 | -48.17 | 27.94 | 27 |
| GR | 34.27 | 0 | 79.06 | 0 |
| HR | 22.43 | -23.48 | 69.03 | 3 |
| HU | 23.57 | 0.02 | 65.88 | 0 |
| IE-SEM | 23.56 | -41.09 | 46.03 | 41 |
| IT-CNOR | 22.53 | 1 | 46.77 | 0 |
| IT-CSUD | 23.08 | 1 | 46.77 | 0 |
| IT-NORD | 21.04 | 1 | 44.6 | 0 |
| IT-SARD | 21.32 | 0 | 46.77 | 0 |
| IT-SICI | 22.95 | 1 | 63.1 | 0 |
| IT-SUD | 22.35 | 1 | 46.77 | 0 |
| LT | 24.52 | 0.94 | 57 | 0 |
| LV | 24.52 | 0.94 | 57 | 0 |
| NL | 17.67 | -25 | 43 | 21 |
| NO1 | 7.18 | 0.69 | 21.72 | 0 |
| NO2 | 7.16 | 0.69 | 21.72 | 0 |
| NO3 | 8.69 | 0.86 | 57 | 0 |
| NO4 | 8.84 | 0.86 | 57 | 0 |
| NO5 | 7.18 | 0.69 | 21.72 | 0 |
| PL | 38.55 | 15.31 | 57 | 0 |
| PT | 21.44 | 1.02 | 36.19 | 0 |
| RS | 23.98 | 1.1 | 50.29 | 0 |
| SE1 | 9.5 | 0.86 | 57 | 0 |
| SE2 | 9.5 | 0.86 | 57 | 0 |
| SE3 | 12.73 | 0.86 | 57 | 0 |
| SE4 | 14.03 | 0.86 | 57 | 0 |
| SI | 21.23 | -23.48 | 55.13 | 3 |
| SK | 18.26 | -65 | 52.1 | 34 |
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-2020-05".