Dutch Power Prices Drop Amid Wind-Driven Weekend Price Crash

This week, the average Dutch power price for Week 40 settled at 75.5 €/MWh, which was a decrease of approximately 14% compared to the previous week. The week started off bullish due to extremely low wind generation across the BENELUX region and Germany, tightening renewable supply. As a result, baseload prices in the Netherlands were elevated during the first three days, clearing between 111.3 €/MWh and 123.3 €/MWh. However, wind conditions gradually improved mid-week, culminating in a surge over the weekend. The BENELUX region and Germany experienced very high winds, with peak wind generation reaching nearly 9.9 GW in the weekend in the Netherlands. This led to a 20% week-on-week increase in wind output across the country. On Saturday, 4 October, the Netherlands recorded an average clearing price of -1.11 €/MWh, with 19 hours (based on the average of 15-minute interval) of negative prices. On Sunday, 5 October, the average clearing price was 7.5 €/MWh, with 17 hours in the negative price territory. These two days of extremely low prices significantly dragged down the overall weekly average, offsetting the earlier price spike.