State of European Power · August 2023

State of European Power — August 2023

Published 2023-09-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-07-13T23:51Z) · reproduce any number via the API

618

negative price-hours across 43 zones in August 2023

84.25

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

24

zones that cleared below zero at least once

August 2023 closed with 618 negative price-hours across the 43 European bidding zones with full coverage this month — 24 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 16.61 €/MWh); the priciest was IT-SICI (116.67 €/MWh) — a 100 €/MWh gap between two markets inside one coupled European system, which is the whole story of constrained interconnection in one number.

SE1 logged the most negative hours (45), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to FI: from -11.6 to 549.95 €/MWh (561.55 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -149.99 €/MWh in AT on 2023-08-08.

Every zone, one table

ZoneAvg €/MWhMinMaxNegative hours
AT 92.72 -9.93 264.09 8
BE 92.05 -51.42 286.17 9
BG 101.39 0 384.82 0
CH 94.53 2.28 242.63 0
CZ 92.51 -18.59 290.75 12
DE-LU 94.36 -18.53 265.07 15
DK1 86.06 -21.77 291.93 38
DK2 86.39 -11.6 291.93 42
EE 94.49 -9.97 549.95 15
ES 96.09 0 180.34 0
FI 66.42 -11.6 549.95 44
FR 90.96 0 276.12 0
GR 109.33 0 384.82 0
HR 96.17 -4.82 289.69 8
HU 100.47 -10.46 380.71 6
IE-SEM 106.49 15.39 225 0
IT-CALA 115.23 20 263.3 0
IT-CNOR 112.07 40 265.3 0
IT-CSUD 112.11 40 265.3 0
IT-NORD 111.21 40 265.3 0
IT-SARD 108.31 6.7 265.3 0
IT-SICI 116.67 20 263.3 0
IT-SUD 111.23 20 265.3 0
LT 102.6 -9.97 549.92 13
LV 102.6 -9.97 549.92 13
ME 100.74 6.92 263.87 0
MK 99.64 0 283.5 0
NL 91.42 -79.22 291.93 20
NO1 17.52 -6.39 39.94 35
NO2 63.73 -6.39 95.63 34
NO3 17.44 -6.15 41.47 36
NO4 16.61 -6.15 41.47 36
NO5 17.53 -5.92 39.94 35
PL 107.06 11.36 216.18 0
PT 97.91 0 180.34 0
RO 101.69 0 384.82 0
RS 96.84 0 293.2 0
SE1 20.05 -11.6 69.97 45
SE2 20.05 -11.6 69.97 45
SE3 31.14 -11.6 258.55 45
SE4 41.76 -11.6 258.55 45
SI 94.76 -7.52 289.17 11
SK 94.5 -12.22 290.75 8

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-2023-08".