German energy market records 78 hours of negative prices in May

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From pv magazine Germany

In May, the day-ahead electricity spot market in the Germany/Luxembourg region achieved an average price of €6.72/kWh on the electricity exchange, according to Rabot Charge, a provider of dynamic electricity tariffs. It cited the “Energy Charts” published by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE).

Rabot Charge said the average in day-ahead trading has now been below the 8% mark for six months. There were 78 hours with negative electricity prices in May – significantly more than in April, with 50 hours. Nevertheless, the average price in May was 7.7% higher than in April at €6.24/kWh.

Rabot Charge said it was able to offer slightly lower prices for its own customers. It said the working price (including taxes and fees) was €27.66/kWh in May, 0.7% lower than in April at €27.85/kWh. However, this price only depends in part on the electricity market price, as do all other electricity tariffs – the amount of electricity traded on the exchange represents only a very small part of total consumption.

Like all other market analysts, Rabot Charge identified a consistently high proportion of renewable energy as the main reason for low energy prices. The share of renewables in the grid load (again, not to be confused with their share in the electricity exchange trading volumes) was 63.1% in May.

Photovoltaics contributed an unusually high share of 24.2%, while the average for the first five months was only 12.2% – hardly surprising, given that only a very small share of the total annual yield is generated in the first two to three months of the year. Wind power, on the other hand, made an unusually small contribution of 21.4%, while the current average for 2024 is 34.3%.

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