Electricity prices on the Czech day-ahead market stabilised last year, with negative prices in 58 hours

The average electricity price on the Czech Republic's day-ahead market fell year on year to EUR 40.22/MWh last year. Compared with 2018, the number of hours with negative electricity prices increased slightly, while electricity traded at EUR 100 or more in only 6 hours.

The power sector has had an eventful year, yet at least on the day-ahead market there was relative calm compared with the previous year. In terms of price levels, last year was much more stable than 2018 and was characterised by lower prices.

As can be seen from the chart above, electricity on the Czech day-ahead market most frequently traded at EUR 34/MWh, in 342 hours. Compared with 2018, this was a substantially lower price (in 2018, the most frequent trading price was EUR 48/MWh).

2019 was relatively calm in terms of price extremes as well. Electricity traded at negative prices in 58 hours, and only in the first half of the year. Electricity traded at EUR 100/MWh or more only on a single day, for six hours (24 January 2019). Thanks in part to the extreme prices on 24 January, January became the month with the highest average electricity price.

In a year-on-year comparison, it should be recalled that 2018 was extreme in terms of market prices – the average electricity price rose by almost EUR 10/MWh to EUR 46/MWh. By contrast, in 2019 traders bought electricity at an average price of EUR 40.22/MWh.

While higher electricity prices in 2018 were driven not only by rising emissions allowance prices but also by higher commodity prices, commodity prices generally declined in 2019, putting greater downward pressure on electricity prices. Thanks to the exceptionally low price of natural gas in Europe, gas-fired power plants were dispatched more frequently. There is ample capacity of such plants in central Europe, and their output therefore capped further price growth to some extent.

Another important factor was higher renewable generation in Germany. According to initial estimates, renewables accounted for 46% of net electricity generation and generated 21 TWh more year on year in Germany. Given the significant correlation between prices on the Czech and German day-ahead markets, this factor also affected prices in the Czech Republic.