State of European Power · March 2023

State of European Power — March 2023

Published 2023-04-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-07-13T23:54Z) · reproduce any number via the API

52

negative price-hours across 41 zones in March 2023

102.57

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

5

zones that cleared below zero at least once

March 2023 closed with 52 negative price-hours across the 41 European bidding zones with full coverage this month — 5 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 43.52 €/MWh); the priciest was IE-SEM (145.21 €/MWh) — a 102 €/MWh gap between two markets inside one coupled European system, which is the whole story of constrained interconnection in one number.

NL logged the most negative hours (20), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to IE-SEM: from 5 to 340 €/MWh (335 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -29.18 €/MWh in DE-LU on 2023-03-25.

Every zone, one table

ZoneAvg €/MWhMinMaxNegative hours
AT 113.23 11.79 200.8 0
BE 109.48 -12.83 217.09 14
BG 108.43 0.45 217.09 0
CH 124.43 9.58 200.42 0
CZ 110.7 1.86 217.09 0
DE-LU 101.46 -9.91 201.39 8
DK1 98.84 -1.18 217.09 6
DK2 89.46 1.78 217.09 0
EE 87.08 1.78 217.09 0
ES 89.58 0 190 0
FI 74.13 1.5 217.09 0
FR 111.81 -0.03 232.47 4
GR 122.75 4.95 224.29 0
HR 111.62 1.09 217.09 0
HU 113.23 1.64 217.09 0
IE-SEM 145.21 5 340 0
IT-CALA 126.1 1 245 0
IT-CNOR 140.76 3.09 245 0
IT-CSUD 128.92 1 245 0
IT-NORD 140.96 3.09 245 0
IT-SARD 118.97 0 245 0
IT-SICI 126.04 1 245 0
IT-SUD 126.14 1 245 0
LT 88.59 1.78 217.09 0
LV 87.67 1.78 217.09 0
NL 104.44 -20.02 219 20
NO1 99.93 1.78 210.36 0
NO2 99.93 1.78 210.36 0
NO3 56.92 10.46 182.52 0
NO4 43.52 10.46 182.52 0
NO5 100.29 53.81 210.36 0
PL 120.43 42.96 199.3 0
PT 89.93 0 190 0
RO 108.43 0.45 217.09 0
RS 105.77 25.02 196.64 0
SE1 50.28 1.78 182.52 0
SE2 50.28 1.78 182.52 0
SE3 71.76 1.78 217.09 0
SE4 81.71 1.78 217.09 0
SI 113.56 0.93 217.09 0
SK 112.79 1.75 217.09 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-2023-03".