A sunny weekend with relatively much wind. This created a special situation on the electricity market. Producers had to pay to supply electricity on Saturday and Sunday. A negative electricity price sometimes occurs more often, but now it lasted for many hours and the difference between minimum and maximum price on one day was also very large.
The price of electricity on the EPEX spot quotation saw a sharp dip this weekend. After a few days with a quotation above €200 per MWh, the price came to €22 per MWh on Friday, April 179,60. On Saturday 23, the price fell to €62,54 per MWh, the lowest quotation since January. This lower price was short-lived. On Sunday, the EPEX quotation was again at €83,82 per MWh. On Monday, April 25, that was even €221,22 per MWh.
The differences were also particularly large on the hourly market. On Saturday April 23, the lowest price was -€222,36 per MWh, while the highest price on the same day was +€195,20. The price trough was therefore deeper than the price peak for the first time since the existence of the EPEX spot quotation. The fact that the negative energy price lasted for six and seven hours is also exceptional.
Generating electricity with traditional fossil fuels is now extremely expensive due to high gas and coal prices (and to a slightly lesser extent due to expensive CO2 emission allowances). At the same time, France is supplying less power from nuclear power stations due to maintenance work, after discovering corrosion in a reactor. The owners of solar panels and wind turbines that produce relatively cheap electricity benefit indirectly from the expensive fossil energy that is still largely included in the electricity price. The fact that solar and wind energy are in principle less valuable because production is difficult to control is thus disguised.
Changed market
Last weekend, according to experts, is a preview of how the market can develop. In a period with a lot of supply and little demand, the price falls. For the time being, this will be limited to weekends and holidays, but in the long term (if the generation capacity is expanded) this can also happen during the week. A negative price can cause an unpleasant surprise for participants in the SDE++ scheme. If the price is negative for six hours or more, none will be returned SDE++ subsidy provided for electricity supplied during those hours.
There are exceptions to that rule, however. For example, this does not apply to projects submitted before December 1, 2015 or projects with a connection of less than 500 kW to the electricity grid.