Market Coupling Leads to Unprecedented Low Prices Across Northern Europe

  A combination of high wind and historically low demand overnight in GB saw the key hourly day ahead market price crash to an unprecedented low of £1.60/MWh on the morning of the 7th of June. Remarkably the excess wind in Northern Europe lead to a sustained period of price coupling across GB, Netherlands, Germany and France as the EUPHEMIA mechanism was able to optimise interconnector flows and share the benefit of renewable energy across the Coupled European Market.     Ireland will soon also experience this type of market activity as it transitions to I-SEM and consumers on the island will be able to see the economic benefit of market price coupling. On the other hand conventional generators could be forced into guaranteed losses as they will need to make a decision to delve into negative prices to stay on in time for the morning peak, or make the decision to switch off. This type of market activity was seen in the Intraday and Balancing markets between 2-6 am as prices dropped to as low as -£35.38/MWh, despite the fact that wind out turned at 7 GW, over 2 GW lower than the forecasted generation. This clearly demonstrates the benefit of 24/7 shift trading and the ability to react to market activity during these key night time periods of volatility.