State of European Power · August 2021

State of European Power — August 2021

Published 2021-09-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-07-13T23:52Z) · reproduce any number via the API

85

negative price-hours across 39 zones in August 2021

91.31

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

9

zones that cleared below zero at least once

August 2021 closed with 85 negative price-hours across the 39 European bidding zones with full coverage this month — 9 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 42.81 €/MWh); the priciest was IT-SICI (133.11 €/MWh) — a 90 €/MWh gap between two markets inside one coupled European system, which is the whole story of constrained interconnection in one number.

FR logged the most negative hours (23), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to SI: from 3.53 to 232.96 €/MWh (229.43 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -78.10 €/MWh in DE-LU on 2021-08-08.

Every zone, one table

ZoneAvg €/MWhMinMaxNegative hours
AT 82.64 -41.7 140.76 7
BE 79.55 -70 142.65 22
CH 82.66 -53.85 143.23 9
CZ 84.99 -1.22 145 1
DE-LU 82.31 -55.46 143.2 10
DK1 82.91 -16.09 145 3
DK2 84.48 0.04 145 0
ES 106.08 0.9 137.46 0
FI 68.14 0.04 137.02 0
FR 77.4 -63.03 137.02 23
GR 121.61 62.71 208.12 0
HR 105.63 3.53 232.96 0
HU 109.06 14.99 214.26 0
IE-SEM 131.48 37 220.01 0
IT-CALA 120.48 72 199 0
IT-CNOR 110.03 48.17 199 0
IT-CSUD 118.61 50.06 199 0
IT-NORD 105.89 36.12 150 0
IT-SARD 111.54 0 199 0
IT-SICI 133.11 76.16 199 0
IT-SUD 118.61 50.06 199 0
LT 87.85 0.04 200 0
LV 87.44 0.04 200 0
NL 86.66 -63.03 156.3 9
NO1 71.88 0.04 132.77 0
NO2 71.9 0.04 132.77 0
NO3 57.05 18.78 120.77 0
NO4 42.81 18.78 94.15 0
NO5 71.95 3.44 132.77 0
PL 82.4 53.86 119.52 0
PT 106.13 0.9 137.46 0
RO 112.74 14.99 214.26 0
RS 109.71 41.5 199.04 0
SE1 57.49 0.04 120.77 0
SE2 57.49 0.04 120.77 0
SE3 65.61 0.04 137.02 0
SE4 83.79 0.04 145 0
SI 105.58 3.53 232.96 0
SK 85.59 -1.22 146 1

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-2021-08".