Europe's Grid Swings From Negative Prices to €210/MWh as Storage Demand Surges
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Munich – – September 30, 2026 -- Germany's day-ahead power prices spiked to around €210/MWh during summer heatwaves this year, levels typically seen only in winter, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters, even as the same market recorded 573 hours of negative wholesale prices in 2025.
Heat and oversupply pushed Europe's power market to opposite extremes within hours
Rising cooling demand collided with reduced nuclear output caused by high river temperatures and low water levels, while weak wind conditions and lower thermal efficiency tightened supply further. Hours later, the same grids faced the reverse problem: too much electricity. The International Energy Agency found negative-price hours accounted for roughly 6% of the year in 2025 across Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands.