State of European Power · September 2023

State of European Power — September 2023

Published 2023-10-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-07-13T23:57Z) · reproduce any number via the API

1,426

negative price-hours across 43 zones in September 2023

84.62

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

28

zones that cleared below zero at least once

September 2023 closed with 1,426 negative price-hours across the 43 European bidding zones with full coverage this month — 28 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 NO5 (average 0.94 €/MWh); the priciest was LT (117.01 €/MWh) — a 116 €/MWh gap between two markets inside one coupled European system, which is the whole story of constrained interconnection in one number.

NO1 logged the most negative hours (226), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to DK1: from -5.74 to 524.27 €/MWh (530.01 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -32.66 €/MWh in DE-LU on 2023-09-24.

Every zone, one table

ZoneAvg €/MWhMinMaxNegative hours
AT 101.4 -6.61 345.03 2
BE 94.35 -3.77 330.36 20
BG 101.66 -0.09 400 3
CH 97.02 0.91 185.28 0
CZ 101.85 -1.84 444.02 4
DE-LU 100.79 -2.67 395.81 9
DK1 84.74 -5.74 524.27 45
DK2 85.49 -3.2 524.27 36
EE 113.19 -2.62 500 8
ES 103.36 0 170 0
FI 32.75 -5.05 300.08 102
FR 88.71 -1.98 227.26 15
GR 101.93 0 362.17 0
HR 102.69 -1.12 429.78 3
HU 103.82 -1.12 437.47 3
IE-SEM 111.59 -3 287.44 14
IT-CALA 114.94 10 227.26 0
IT-CNOR 116.21 10 227.26 0
IT-CSUD 115.95 10 227.26 0
IT-NORD 116.14 10 227.26 0
IT-SARD 104.25 0 227.26 0
IT-SICI 116.11 10 244.5 0
IT-SUD 114.98 10 227.26 0
LT 117.01 -2.62 500 6
LV 116.98 -2.62 500 6
ME 101.78 15.5 273.59 0
MK 102.94 20.4 273.6 0
NL 98.7 -8.09 463.77 23
NO1 0.95 -5.09 10.13 226
NO2 50.12 -5.09 104.96 42
NO3 8.55 -4.03 32 102
NO4 8.54 -4.03 32 102
NO5 0.94 -5.09 10.13 226
PL 109.83 4.68 214.96 0
PT 104.17 4.08 170 0
RO 103.19 -0.09 436.89 3
RS 103.06 12.09 318.27 0
SE1 9.09 -4.03 32 106
SE2 9.09 -4.03 32 106
SE3 20.39 -4.03 230.28 106
SE4 43.13 -4.03 276.96 102
SI 102.56 -1.28 426.18 3
SK 103.59 -1.57 444.02 3

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-2023-09".