RES producers face negative power rates

The price of a megawatt-hour on the energy exchanges of Europe, with the exception of Italy, fell into negative territory to -142 euros at noon on Thursday, and in Greece to -€50.

It was the first time negative prices have appeared in the Greek market to such an extent, as the previous record low was -€1.02/MWh on April 28, 2024.

The negative prices in the Greek market were imported from the interconnection with Bulgaria, where prices were even lower, at -€100.59/MWh.

Traders were channeling energy that they purchased at cheaper prices through Bulgaria into the Greek market. Imports at 2 p.m. reached the maximum level of the interconnection capacity, resulting in the two markets being disconnected. Had this capacity been greater, the price of a megawatt-hour would have fallen in Greece well below -€50/MWh.

For six hours, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., electricity producers paid instead of being paid to sell their megawatt-hours they put into the system. They paid between €3/MWh and €50/MWh from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Household consumers in Greece do not benefit directly from the negative prices, nor to the same extent as other consumers in Europe. This is because the installation of smart meters planned since the previous decade has not been completed.

Therefore, there is no possibility of remote measuring of consumption and no available invoices from suppliers that link the kilowatt-hour charge to the fluctuations of the wholesale market per hour. If smart meters were available, consumers could choose a “dynamic” tariff, as it is called, taking the risk of price fluctuations and adjusting their consumption as much as possible during low-variation hours. One benefit of this arrangement is that consumers earn from the decline in the average daily marginal price. On Thursday, for example, the average wholesale price fell by 36.89%, the lowest daily level since 2020 and almost 37% below the previous day.

At noon, the price of a megawatt-hour in the Netherlands sank to -€142 and in Hungary to -€129.07, while prices in most European markets were below -€100, with the exception of Italy, which would have also gone into negative territory had the interconnection with Greece not been suspended.