State of European Power · January 2021

State of European Power — January 2021

Published 2021-02-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-07-13T23:52Z) · reproduce any number via the API

15

negative price-hours across 39 zones in January 2021

54.42

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

1

zones that cleared below zero at least once

January 2021 closed with 15 negative price-hours across the 39 European bidding zones with full coverage this month — 1 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 36.38 €/MWh); the priciest was IE-SEM (78.39 €/MWh) — a 42 €/MWh gap between two markets inside one coupled European system, which is the whole story of constrained interconnection in one number.

HR logged the most negative hours (15), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to IE-SEM: from 0 to 500 €/MWh (500 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -263.31 €/MWh in HR on 2021-01-14.

Every zone, one table

ZoneAvg €/MWhMinMaxNegative hours
AT 57.71 30.8 108.43 0
BE 57.44 1.01 139.48 0
CH 60.48 34.54 102.03 0
CZ 56.16 8.43 104.19 0
DE-LU 53.21 2.76 217.42 0
DK1 50.19 0.02 110 0
DK2 50.85 11.08 110 0
EE 53.57 11.08 121.63 0
ES 60.1 0.16 121.24 0
FI 51.25 11.08 121.63 0
FR 59.47 3.15 114.89 0
GR 52.51 1.5 98.02 0
HR 53.87 -263.31 110.45 15
HU 56.39 8.43 123.31 0
IE-SEM 78.39 0 500 0
IT-CALA 56.03 3 98.02 0
IT-CNOR 61.45 30.89 110.45 0
IT-CSUD 59.64 20.08 98.02 0
IT-NORD 61.46 30.89 110.45 0
IT-SARD 57.7 0 98.02 0
IT-SICI 60.2 3 116.73 0
IT-SUD 58.29 8 98.02 0
LT 53.66 11.08 121.63 0
LV 53.56 11.08 121.63 0
NL 53.62 0.2 123.12 0
NO1 48.3 12.63 110 0
NO2 48.16 12.63 110 0
NO3 43.89 19.74 110 0
NO4 36.38 18.52 103.14 0
NO5 48.24 19.74 110 0
PL 54.79 28.11 94.2 0
PT 60.63 0.16 121.24 0
RS 53.75 1.03 109.83 0
SE1 44.67 11.08 110 0
SE2 44.67 11.08 110 0
SE3 48.62 11.08 110 0
SE4 49.78 11.08 110 0
SI 57.53 0.1 110.45 0
SK 55.77 8.43 120 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-2021-01".