State of European Power · May 2024

State of European Power — May 2024

Published 2024-06-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-07-13T23:54Z) · reproduce any number via the API

1,542

negative price-hours across 43 zones in May 2024

63.36

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

31

zones that cleared below zero at least once

May 2024 closed with 1,542 negative price-hours across the 43 European bidding zones with full coverage this month — 31 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 SE1 (average 15.08 €/MWh); the priciest was IE-SEM (107.79 €/MWh) — a 93 €/MWh gap between two markets inside one coupled European system, which is the whole story of constrained interconnection in one number.

FI logged the most negative hours (96), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to EE: from -7.41 to 500.05 €/MWh (507.46 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -200.00 €/MWh in NL on 2024-05-01.

Every zone, one table

ZoneAvg €/MWhMinMaxNegative hours
AT 64.18 -112.64 187.59 58
BE 54.45 -138.76 147.15 64
BG 82.29 -0.97 208.06 4
CH 62.05 -145.12 137.83 48
CZ 69.03 -138.75 208.44 72
DE-LU 67.48 -112.44 200.01 62
DK1 58.62 -28.81 175.74 75
DK2 58.26 -15.07 221.46 59
EE 76 -7.41 500.05 36
ES 30.32 -1.29 120 35
FI 35.07 -15.07 397.98 96
FR 27.09 -87.29 115.92 60
GR 81.21 0 192.2 0
HR 74.6 -100.71 200.56 32
HU 72.28 -149.98 210.84 77
IE-SEM 107.79 29 193 0
IT-CALA 94 0 180 0
IT-CNOR 95.55 2.06 158 0
IT-CSUD 95.67 2.06 180 0
IT-NORD 94.19 2.06 158 0
IT-SARD 91.67 0 180 0
IT-SICI 100.6 0 228.2 0
IT-SUD 94 0 180 0
LT 76 -7.41 500.05 36
LV 76 -7.41 500.05 36
ME 80.77 0 161 0
MK 78.55 0 170.86 0
NL 65.7 -200 165.41 74
NO1 32.07 -15.07 115.51 38
NO2 41.54 -15.07 133.54 38
NO3 18.69 -0.08 55.6 5
NO4 18.68 -0.08 55.6 5
NO5 32.56 -12.99 115.51 38
PL 85.63 -24.74 158.02 31
PT 30.65 -0.66 120 27
RO 81.77 -106.36 208.06 9
RS 81.23 0 180.05 0
SE1 15.08 -15.07 55.6 80
SE2 15.08 -15.07 55.6 80
SE3 20.31 -15.07 134.42 78
SE4 43.67 -15.07 209.46 73
SI 73.17 -105.88 212.52 42
SK 70.95 -146.13 209.07 74

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-2024-05".