State of European Power · January 2023

State of European Power — January 2023

Published 2023-02-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-08-23T17:26Z) · reproduce any number via the API

96

negative price-hours across 43 zones in January 2023

275.11

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

13

zones that cleared below zero at least once

January 2023 closed with 96 negative price-hours across the 43 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 NO4 (average 43.43 €/MWh); the priciest was TR (3431.03 €/MWh) — a 3388 €/MWh gap between two markets inside one coupled European system, which is the whole story of constrained interconnection in one number.

BE logged the most negative hours (16), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to TR: from 1477.46 to 4200 €/MWh (2722.54 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -139.97 €/MWh in DE-LU on 2023-01-02.

Every zone, one table

ZoneAvg €/MWhMinMaxNegative hours
AT 143.79 -9.66 261.6 6
BE 130.87 -5.4 270.13 16
BG 136.3 0.01 362.31 0
CH 157.46 -15.15 252.26 10
CZ 134.81 -3.44 271.23 8
DE-LU 117.37 -15.02 264.25 12
DK1 112.65 -0.38 270.22 1
DK2 99.86 0.05 270.22 0
EE 99.38 0.05 263.74 0
ES 69.73 0 220 0
FI 78.87 0.05 242 0
FR 132.28 -4.37 270 8
GR 191.66 0.49 369.17 0
HR 136.98 -24.97 263.51 13
HU 148.8 -2.56 362.99 2
IE-SEM 162.16 -5.27 348 3
IT-CALA 163.26 0 298.2 0
IT-CNOR 177.07 56.1 298.2 0
IT-CSUD 172.57 16 298.2 0
IT-NORD 176.88 56.1 295 0
IT-SARD 168.09 0 298.2 0
IT-SICI 163.59 0 298.2 0
IT-SUD 167.57 5 298.2 0
LT 103.17 0.05 263.74 0
LV 99.85 0.05 263.74 0
NL 126.13 -5 270.2 8
NO1 118.33 4.29 261.85 0
NO2 118.33 4.29 261.85 0
NO3 65.24 4.1 180.33 0
NO4 43.43 4.1 114.26 0
NO5 120.36 11.07 261.85 0
PL 132.59 5.17 211.44 0
PT 69.53 0 220 0
RO 136.3 0 362.31 0
RS 135.96 1.02 299.98 0
SE1 66.11 0.05 190.03 0
SE2 62.95 0.05 190.03 0
SE3 82.81 0.05 261.85 0
SE4 93.44 0.05 263.74 0
SI 146.65 -2.97 267.73 8
SK 146.58 -2.45 297.93 1
TR 3431.03 1477.46 4200 0
UA 3289.08 1378.97 4000 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-2023-01".

The monthly European power roundup

Negative-price records, the biggest spreads, which zones were hardest to forecast — every number computed from our production data, on the 2nd of each month. No filler, unsubscribe anytime.