Where a battery has the most to work with in Europe

The figure on this page is the spread: the average of the two dearest hours of a day’s day-ahead price less the average of the two cheapest. A two hour battery buys in the cheap hours and sells in the dear ones, so the spread is the most it can be paid per megawatt hour of storage for one cycle, before losses and wear. It is a different thing from the price. A country can be dear all day and give a battery little to work with, and the table lower down sets the two side by side.

Where each country sits

the year’s average where eight days in ten fell the latest day

The daily spread, €/MWh, 5 October 2025 to 4 October 2026, one row per country in order of the year’s average. The tick is the latest day held for each country, 4 October 2026 for most and 2 October 2026 for Britain, whose settled prices arrive two days later. Britain is converted from pounds at the ECB rate on 2 October 2026, €1 = £0.850.

Month by month

The average daily spread in each month, €/MWh, darker where wider. The table scrolls sideways. The whole continent turned in March: the spread rose in every country as solar came back and the midday price fell away from the evening. The year column is the average of the last 365 days.

The price and the gap are different things

People compare countries on the price. A battery compares them on the gap. The two orders are not the same, and Britain is the clearest case: 8th of 15 on the average price, 13th on the spread.

The average day-ahead price and the average daily spread over the same year, €/MWh. The last column is the spread as a share of the price: how much of what a country pays for power is the swing within the day rather than the level.

Each country, day by day

The faint line is each day; the bold line is the seven day average. One scale for every country, so a flat line is a flat market. The scale is set so the seven day average always fits; single days that run off the top are counted on the chart.

Hungary €169 a day on average, latest €222

Poland €148 a day on average, latest €202

Slovenia €139 a day on average, latest €216

Germany €134 a day on average, latest €181

Czechia €133 a day on average, latest €206

Netherlands €131 a day on average, latest €178

Austria €128 a day on average, latest €224

Denmark, east €127 a day on average, latest €181

Denmark, west €122 a day on average, latest €181

Belgium €122 a day on average, latest €178

France €112 a day on average, latest €176

Switzerland €93 a day on average, latest €167

Great Britain €86 a day on average, latest €115

Italy, north €78 a day on average, latest €127

Norway, south €66 a day on average, latest €93

From the big picture to the detail

This page is built from prices anyone can read. What it cannot tell you is what any one battery did with them. For Britain that record exists: what each battery was actually paid, measured on the lines anyone can check, and tomorrow’s price, published each morning and scored every day it settles. For Italy, every project the public record names and the grid as it runs.

Not shown yet, and why

A day-ahead price belongs to the exchange that runs the auction, and most exchanges ask for written consent before it is published elsewhere, even as a derived figure. The countries on this page are the ones whose prices may be shown: fourteen from the German regulator’s open data and Britain from Elexon’s. The rest join as permissions arrive.

• Spain and Portugal: open data, to be added next. OMIE publishes its prices for free use with the source named.
• Lithuania: open data, to be added next. Litgrid publishes the price as open data.
• Ireland and Northern Ireland: open data, to be added next. EirGrid Group publishes SEMOpx data under an open licence.
• The rest of Italy: waiting for GME, asked on 4 October 2026.
• Estonia, Latvia, Finland and the rest of Norway and Sweden: waiting for Nord Pool, asked on 4 October 2026.
• Greece: waiting for HEnEx, asked on 4 October 2026.
• Croatia: waiting for CROPEX, asked on 4 October 2026.
• Serbia: waiting for SEEPEX, asked on 4 October 2026.
• Bulgaria: waiting for IBEX, asked on 4 October 2026.
• Romania: waiting for OPCOM, asked on 4 October 2026.

Sources and method

• Germany, Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, France, Hungary, northern Italy, the Netherlands, southern Norway, Poland, Switzerland and Slovenia: the day-ahead price by hour from SMARD, the Bundesnetzagentur’s open data portal, licence CC BY 4.0. Source: Bundesnetzagentur | SMARD.de.
• Great Britain: Elexon’s market index price, half hour by half hour, the same series the rest of this site prices batteries against. It is the price of power traded within the day rather than the day-ahead auction price, so Britain’s row is not quite like for like with the others; the two series follow each other closely, and a day-ahead figure will replace it when one may be published. Converted to euros at the ECB reference rate on the day the data was last written.
• The spread for a day is the average of its two dearest hours less the average of its two cheapest, on hourly means of the published prices, on the day as the exchange defines it. Days with fewer than 22 hours reported are left out. The month by month figure is the average of the days in the month; the year is the last 365 days to 4 October 2026.
• Countries with more than one price zone are shown by one zone, named in the row: Denmark both, Norway and Italy their southern and northern zones. Zones join as their licences allow.

Data to 4 October 2026, refreshed every morning. 5 October 2025 to 4 October 2026 is the year every average on this page covers.