Power across Europe costs twice what it did a year ago
Take each day’s average price in the 20 price zones shown here and pick the middle one. Over the 30 days to 12 November 2026 that middle price averaged €223 a megawatt hour, against €86 over the same days last year and €82 in April, the cheapest month of the year. Press play to watch the year move across the map.
Reading the European Union’s electricity system.
Every member state’s generation, by technology, added into one system; the figures are each system operator’s own.
Swipe sideways to follow the power from left to right.
The same reading as a table, in megawatts
A year of day-ahead prices: Great Britain against every other zone
Drag across the chart to move through the yearThe day’s average day-ahead price in € a megawatt hour, 15 November 2025 to 14 November 2026, each line a week’s average so a single day does not hide the trend. The middle price was lowest in the week to 1 May 2026 and highest in the week to 11 November 2026. Britain’s line is Elexon’s market index, the price of power traded within the day, converted at €1 = £0.836; every other line is the auction itself.
Free power got rarer in most of Europe and commoner in Portugal and Spain
A battery charges most cheaply in the hours when the day-ahead price falls to zero or below. Over the last 12 months there were fewer such hours than the year before in 11 of the 17 zones we can compare. Germany had 569 against 684. Portugal went from 408 hours to 913, and Spain went from 799 hours to 1,064. This page counts the hours; it does not yet say why they moved.
Hours in which the day-ahead price was zero or below, in the 12 months to 12 November 2026 and the 12 before. Counted quarter hour by quarter hour where the auction is quarter hourly, by the half hour in Ireland and Britain, and by the hour before 1 October 2025, when the European auction was hourly. Great Britain, Sweden’s Stockholm zone and Ireland have no earlier year here: the site holds Britain’s market index from June 2025, Ireland’s exchange serves one year, and Energinet’s copy of Sweden’s Stockholm zone starts on 1 October 2025.
A battery was paid most for the daily swing in Poland and least in southern Norway
A two hour battery charges in the eight cheapest quarter hours of the day and sells in the eight dearest. The gap between the two, the spread, is the most it can be paid per megawatt hour for one cycle. Over the last 30 days it averaged €271 in Poland and €63 in southern Norway. Britain came 17th of 20.
The average daily spread, €/MWh, over the 30 days to 12 November 2026, one dot per zone. EPEX SPOT sells the same figure as its TB2 index; ours is the same arithmetic on the regulators’ open copy of the auction. Every zone, month by month, on the spread page.
Eleven of these markets have a page of their own on this site
Each one counts the batteries from what that country publishes, so the counts are not all the same kind of number; the words under each figure say what it is. Open a country for every battery we can name.
| Market | Batteries | Middle price, 30 days | Daily spread, 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Great Britain | 8.4 GWruns today | €217 | €130 |
| Germany | 4.3 GWregistered as operating | €216 | €149 |
| France | 2.4 GWin the register | €208 | €160 |
| Finland | 2.1 GWFingrid’s count | Nord Pool charges for publication | |
| Ireland and Northern Ireland | 1.0 GWin the market | €274 | €205 |
| Swedenprices: the Stockholm zone | 909 MWnamed, running | €119 | €131 |
| Belgium and the Netherlandsprices: Belgium / Netherlands | 1.5 GWrunning, named | €217 / €216 | €148 / €157 |
| Italyprices: the north zone | 816 MWnamed and running | €262 | €118 |
| Spain | 259 MWregistered to trade, where sized | €183 | €197 |
| Denmarkprices: Denmark, west / Denmark, east | 308 MWnamed as running | €208 / €217 | €140 / €149 |
| Norwayprices: the south zone | 5 MWnamed, running | €173 | €63 |
Who lets us show their prices
A day-ahead price belongs to the exchange that runs the auction. Every exchange we asked has now answered. Where an exchange charges for publication, its countries stay grey until the site can pay.
Shown
Germany and 14 other zones from the German regulator’s open data; Spain and Portugal from OMIE; Ireland from SEMOpx under EirGrid’s open licence; Sweden’s Stockholm zone from Energinet’s open data; Britain from Elexon’s market index.
Croatia and Romania
CROPEX and OPCOM have said yes for this free phase of the site. They join next.
Bulgaria
IBEX has said yes while the site is non commercial. Bulgaria joins once those terms are confirmed in writing.
Lithuania
Litgrid publishes the price as open data, but its feed stopped on 5 October 2025, the week the auction moved to quarter hours. Lithuania joins if the feed comes back.
Estonia, Latvia, Finland and the rest of Norway and Sweden
Nord Pool charges for publication. These stay off the page until the site can pay.
Slovakia
OKTE charges for publication.
Serbia
HUPX, which publishes for SEEPEX, charges once a site is commercial; the free phase is not yet settled.
Greece
HEnEx’s terms do not allow a figure worked out from its prices.
The rest of Italy
GME is still discussing terms.
Great Britain’s auction
EPEX SPOT charges for publication and needs a registered company. Until then Britain’s row is Elexon’s market index.
Sources and method
- Germany, Austria, Belgium, Czechia, both Danish zones, France, Hungary, northern Italy, the Netherlands, southern Norway, Poland, southern Sweden, Switzerland and Slovenia: the day-ahead price by quarter hour from SMARD, the Bundesnetzagentur’s open data portal, CC BY 4.0. Source: Bundesnetzagentur | SMARD.de.
- Spain and Portugal: OMIE’s daily price file. Fuente: OMIE. Ireland and Northern Ireland, one all island price: SEMOpx. Supported by EirGrid Group Data. Sweden’s Stockholm zone: Energinet’s Energi Data Service, CC BY 4.0, held from 1 October 2025. Source: Energinet (www.energidataservice.dk).
- Great Britain: Elexon’s market index, half hourly, converted to euros at the ECB reference rate of 12 November 2026. It is the within day price, close to the auction without being the same number.
- A day’s price is the average of its quarter hours (hours before 1 October 2025; half hours in Ireland and Britain). Europe’s middle price is the median of the zones that report on the day, counted only on days when at least 18 of the 20 do. Each line on the chart is a trailing seven day average.
- Battery counts are the front page’s, read from each country’s page on this site, in that page’s own words; they are not all the same kind of count.
- Data to 14 November 2026 for most zones and 12 November 2026 for Britain and Ireland. The page is rebuilt every morning.