State of European Power · January 2024

State of European Power — January 2024

Published 2024-02-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-07-13T23:52Z) · reproduce any number via the API

128

negative price-hours across 43 zones in January 2024

85.37

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

15

zones that cleared below zero at least once

January 2024 closed with 128 negative price-hours across the 43 European bidding zones with full coverage this month — 15 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 39.32 €/MWh); the priciest was EE (126.47 €/MWh) — a 87 €/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 (18), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to FI: from -2.07 to 1896 €/MWh (1898.07 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -54.92 €/MWh in DE-LU on 2024-01-22.

Every zone, one table

ZoneAvg €/MWhMinMaxNegative hours
AT 80.76 -1.88 143.41 2
BE 78.63 -3.25 144.11 12
BG 89.72 0.01 190.96 0
CH 84.01 8.24 143.05 0
CZ 83 -0.01 148.44 2
DE-LU 76.31 -2.38 146.1 18
DK1 74.76 -0.18 150.32 10
DK2 78.19 1.6 526.25 0
EE 126.47 -2.02 1896 1
ES 74.11 0.43 168.35 0
FI 106.16 -2.07 1896 12
FR 76.66 -0.05 144.11 8
GR 92.99 0.54 190.96 0
HR 84.09 0 148.58 0
HU 85.85 0 165.41 0
IE-SEM 99.9 0 304.36 0
IT-CALA 98.38 35.2 143.79 0
IT-CNOR 99.32 35.2 144.11 0
IT-CSUD 99.11 35.2 144.11 0
IT-NORD 99.32 35.2 144.11 0
IT-SARD 97.54 0 144.11 0
IT-SICI 98.38 35.2 143.79 0
IT-SUD 98.77 35.2 144.11 0
LT 117.39 -2.02 1478.91 1
LV 117.15 -2.02 1478.91 1
ME 89.05 11.32 149.4 0
MK 90.2 0 148.38 0
NL 78.43 -5 147.06 13
NO1 81.05 5.17 526.25 0
NO2 76.06 5.17 148.72 0
NO3 56.85 2.61 526.25 0
NO4 39.32 2.61 126.06 0
NO5 79.69 44.95 526.25 0
PL 93.48 32.05 160.15 0
PT 74.09 0.43 168.35 0
RO 87.79 0 190.96 0
RS 86.1 1.1 149.79 0
SE1 54.17 -2.07 526.25 12
SE2 54.28 -2.07 526.25 12
SE3 71.2 -2.07 526.25 12
SE4 74.51 -2.07 526.25 12
SI 83.13 0 147.12 0
SK 84.57 0 147.93 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-2024-01".