The Dutch power spot prices drop over 15% for second consecutive week

The Dutch power price continued to fall in week 32 averaging at 58.2 €/MWh, which is 17% lower than the previous week when it cleared at 74.8 €/MWh . The prices floored to zero for at least couple of hours for all days in the week during the solar hours. Tuesday cleared at 31.83 €/MWh which was even lower than most weekends. On Sunday, the prices went as low as -64.79 €/MWh and stayed at an average of -40 €/MWh for 5 consecutive hours. These low prices could be attributed to the increased solar energy generation in Germany. Since, Netherlands and Germany share a strong cross-border transmission capacity of around 4 GW, the conditions in either country has an influence over the other. The attached Table shows the wind and solar generation in week 31 and 32. In week 31 (previous week), the drop in prices was driven by the increased wind energy output in the Netherlands. Whereas, in the last week, the increase in German solar energy production was the key driver. Solar production can cause more negative prices compared to wind as a large part of the solar (decentralised) solar generation is not curtailing.[Jd1]