State of European Power · October 2020

State of European Power — October 2020

Published 2020-11-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-07-13T23:57Z) · reproduce any number via the API

101

negative price-hours across 38 zones in October 2020

33.98

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

10

zones that cleared below zero at least once

October 2020 closed with 101 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 NO4 (average 9.53 €/MWh); the priciest was IT-SICI (52.75 €/MWh) — a 43 €/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 (39), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to IT-SARD: from 0 to 449.01 €/MWh (449.01 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -149.99 €/MWh in DE-LU on 2020-10-24.

Every zone, one table

ZoneAvg €/MWhMinMaxNegative hours
AT 35.54 -27.87 80.52 10
BE 39.38 -8.37 80 3
CH 38.21 0.88 91.47 0
CZ 36.35 -8.8 91.23 4
DE-LU 34.03 -49.78 80.65 19
DK1 25.74 -12.92 96.53 13
DK2 26.86 -7.98 96.53 3
EE 37.65 2.29 174.91 0
ES 36.55 1.95 59.3 0
FI 31.08 1.56 174.91 0
FR 37.87 -7.72 78.68 3
GR 47.32 0 110.01 0
HR 38.56 1 79.03 0
HU 39.32 0.4 91.23 0
IE-SEM 48.84 -30.75 193.42 39
IT-CNOR 42.48 4.9 81.55 0
IT-CSUD 44.94 4.9 81.55 0
IT-NORD 42 4.9 78.68 0
IT-SARD 45.37 0 449.01 0
IT-SICI 52.75 4.9 114.11 0
IT-SUD 44.94 4.9 81.55 0
LT 37.76 2.29 174.91 0
LV 37.76 2.29 174.91 0
NL 37.11 -8.15 78.68 3
NO1 13.17 1.56 68.05 0
NO2 13.17 1.56 68.05 0
NO3 12 1.56 25.98 0
NO4 9.53 1.56 14.56 0
NO5 12.64 1.56 32.39 0
PL 52.19 27.05 89.62 0
PT 36.43 1.95 54.08 0
RS 39.31 5.04 92.5 0
SE1 20.58 1.56 96.53 0
SE2 20.58 1.56 96.53 0
SE3 22.11 1.56 96.53 0
SE4 26.27 1.56 96.53 0
SI 38.56 1 78.68 0
SK 36.36 -8.8 91.23 4

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-2020-10".