State of European Power · December 2022

State of European Power — December 2022

Published 2023-01-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-07-13T23:52Z) · reproduce any number via the API

114

negative price-hours across 41 zones in December 2022

242.44

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

20

zones that cleared below zero at least once

December 2022 closed with 114 negative price-hours across the 41 European bidding zones with full coverage this month — 20 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 94.09 €/MWh); the priciest was IT-NORD (303.75 €/MWh) — a 210 €/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 (26), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to FR: from -1.44 to 753 €/MWh (754.44 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -139.96 €/MWh in DE-LU on 2022-12-19.

Every zone, one table

ZoneAvg €/MWhMinMaxNegative hours
AT 265 -4.52 610.05 3
BE 268.88 -4.39 665.01 11
BG 246.56 0.17 708.58 0
CH 279.69 0.03 581.72 0
CZ 250.42 -22.45 665.01 8
DE-LU 250.81 -11.29 614.69 26
DK1 249.28 -2.18 665.01 10
DK2 248.5 -0.04 665.01 3
EE 263.05 -0.04 665.01 2
ES 96.75 0 256.68 0
FI 245.6 -0.04 665.01 3
FR 270.49 -1.44 753 4
GR 276.97 -0.01 600.1 1
HR 246.37 -50.1 665.01 5
HU 260.78 0.02 665.01 0
IE-SEM 276.52 -30 581.07 9
IT-CALA 268.55 17.9 505 0
IT-CNOR 303.75 17.9 605.7 0
IT-CSUD 281.48 17.9 600.1 0
IT-NORD 303.75 17.9 605.7 0
IT-SARD 264.57 0 600.1 0
IT-SICI 267.52 17.9 505 0
IT-SUD 279.83 17.9 600.1 0
LT 263.88 -0.04 665.01 2
LV 263.51 -0.04 665.01 2
NL 258.49 -3.61 665.01 11
NO1 256.97 1.77 665.01 0
NO2 256.97 1.77 665.01 0
NO3 173.55 17.18 590 0
NO4 94.09 17.18 504.8 0
NO5 257.78 59 665.01 0
PL 173.55 16.33 285.75 0
PT 96.35 0 256.68 0
RO 247.59 0.17 708.58 0
RS 241.43 0.98 615.7 0
SE1 187.86 -0.04 590 3
SE2 187.93 -0.04 590 3
SE3 245.46 -0.04 665.01 3
SE4 247.68 -0.04 665.01 3
SI 264.25 0.01 665.01 0
SK 257.7 -10 665.01 2

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-2022-12".