State of European Power · April 2024

State of European Power — April 2024

Published 2024-05-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-07-13T23:54Z) · reproduce any number via the API

1,274

negative price-hours across 43 zones in April 2024

59.87

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

30

zones that cleared below zero at least once

April 2024 closed with 1,274 negative price-hours across the 43 European bidding zones with full coverage this month — 30 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 PT (average 13.32 €/MWh); the priciest was IE-SEM (88.53 €/MWh) — a 75 €/MWh gap between two markets inside one coupled European system, which is the whole story of constrained interconnection in one number.

ES logged the most negative hours (107), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to NL: from -125.3 to 185.41 €/MWh (310.71 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -144.94 €/MWh in DE-LU on 2024-04-14.

Every zone, one table

ZoneAvg €/MWhMinMaxNegative hours
AT 58.85 -81.48 172.96 42
BE 48.04 -65.06 155.98 56
BG 58.29 -45 181.26 27
CH 62.23 -91.51 148.77 50
CZ 63.17 -65.08 204.19 47
DE-LU 62.05 -84.42 188.54 44
DK1 59.16 -60.05 204.57 32
DK2 60.44 -54 204.57 28
EE 60.38 -10 249.96 21
ES 13.77 -1.5 109.9 107
FI 48.91 -10 249.96 38
FR 28.23 -65.06 140 84
GR 60.1 -1.02 149.39 11
HR 60.24 -65.06 195.88 46
HU 62.02 -65.06 204.19 48
IE-SEM 88.53 -5.02 207.99 29
IT-CALA 86.15 0 162.55 0
IT-CNOR 87.08 0.1 162.55 0
IT-CSUD 86.92 0.01 162.55 0
IT-NORD 87.28 0.1 162.55 0
IT-SARD 76.87 0 162.55 0
IT-SICI 86.15 0 162.55 0
IT-SUD 86.36 0 162.55 0
LT 60.24 -10 249.96 25
LV 60.24 -10 249.96 25
ME 63.67 0 149.74 0
MK 60.47 0 163.21 0
NL 58.42 -125.3 185.41 62
NO1 51.42 -31.6 170.64 15
NO2 51.09 -31.6 170.64 16
NO3 49.67 4.8 155.8 0
NO4 42.12 10.19 131.32 0
NO5 54.61 4.8 170.64 0
PL 80.88 -46.24 152.47 15
PT 13.32 -0.63 104.06 100
RO 60.04 -65.06 196.53 35
RS 64.65 0 171.74 0
SE1 43.46 -31.6 155.8 42
SE2 43.74 -31.6 155.8 41
SE3 48.49 -31.6 181.26 41
SE4 53.78 -54 204.57 53
SI 60.24 -65.06 195.88 47
SK 62.73 -65.06 204.19 47

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-2024-04".