State of European Power · April 2026
State of European Power — April 2026
Published 2026-05-02 · every figure recomputed live from the Voltcast production database (last: 2026-07-13T23:52Z) · reproduce any number via the API
1,989
negative price-hours across 42 zones in April 2026
80.42
average day-ahead price, €/MWh, across covered zones
28
zones that cleared below zero at least once
April 2026 closed with 1,989 negative price-hours across the 42 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 NO4 (average 13.02 €/MWh); the priciest was IT-CNOR (121.01 €/MWh) — a 108 €/MWh gap between two markets inside one coupled European system, which is the whole story of constrained interconnection in one number.
FR logged the most negative hours (140), and the widest intra-month price range belonged to HU: from -500 to 291.8 €/MWh (791.8 €/MWh of spread — the raw material for every battery business case). The single deepest print of the month was -500.00 €/MWh in SK on 2026-04-26.
Every zone, one table
| Zone | Avg €/MWh | Min | Max | Negative hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AT | 86.57 | -413.88 | 225.8 | 83 |
| BE | 78.81 | -413.12 | 199.98 | 103 |
| BG | 90.92 | -79.49 | 227.68 | 68 |
| CH | 85.17 | -207.88 | 200.1 | 88 |
| CZ | 81.74 | -421.74 | 243.92 | 94 |
| DE-LU | 78.43 | -413.77 | 245.12 | 123 |
| DK1 | 83.07 | -31.28 | 238.16 | 49 |
| DK2 | 79.27 | -5.98 | 243.82 | 29 |
| EE | 54.43 | -0.7 | 188.42 | 8 |
| ES | 42.72 | -7.51 | 136.34 | 138 |
| FI | 49.45 | -0.69 | 188.2 | 10 |
| FR | 39.56 | -412.55 | 199.98 | 140 |
| GR | 88.64 | -50 | 226.07 | 111 |
| HR | 90.34 | -325.08 | 232.72 | 86 |
| HU | 96.47 | -500 | 291.8 | 84 |
| IT-CALA | 114.69 | 0 | 201.92 | 0 |
| IT-CNOR | 121.01 | 0.88 | 203.26 | 0 |
| IT-CSUD | 117.37 | 0 | 201.92 | 0 |
| IT-NORD | 120.98 | 0.88 | 203.26 | 0 |
| IT-SARD | 116.94 | 0 | 192.23 | 0 |
| IT-SICI | 114.72 | 0 | 201.92 | 0 |
| IT-SUD | 114.86 | 0 | 201.92 | 0 |
| LT | 57.94 | -4.42 | 217.05 | 23 |
| LV | 57.06 | -4.42 | 191.89 | 21 |
| ME | 89.3 | 0 | 181.05 | 0 |
| MK | 86.55 | 0 | 236.31 | 0 |
| NL | 84.5 | -413.34 | 238.14 | 108 |
| NO1 | 100.17 | 6.84 | 262.45 | 0 |
| NO2 | 93.3 | 11.94 | 228.64 | 0 |
| NO3 | 93.17 | 9.76 | 300 | 0 |
| NO4 | 13.02 | -24.09 | 103.7 | 93 |
| NO5 | 110.65 | 58.59 | 176.42 | 0 |
| PL | 82.96 | -395.8 | 267.45 | 87 |
| PT | 42.69 | -7.51 | 134.66 | 116 |
| RO | 95.47 | -97.55 | 246.54 | 74 |
| RS | 91.38 | 0 | 210.01 | 0 |
| SE1 | 24.06 | -1.08 | 122.7 | 9 |
| SE2 | 24.78 | -2.19 | 116.4 | 15 |
| SE3 | 51.6 | -3.36 | 174.75 | 22 |
| SE4 | 61.01 | -5.42 | 222.17 | 30 |
| SI | 88.72 | -400.94 | 228.45 | 87 |
| SK | 83.34 | -448.74 | 244.88 | 90 |
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-2026-04".