Negative electricity prices return to Czechia. 'Free' power lasted a record time

Negative electricity prices returned to the Czech Republic after the crisis years of 2021 and 2022. According to publicly available statistics, there were 134 such hours last year in total. That is 15 more than in 2020, which had the highest number of hours with negative electricity prices since 2015. 

Spot electricity prices sent another signal last year that the energy crisis is slowly coming to an end. The first and most visible signal is energy commodity prices. Wholesale natural gas prices for the benchmark contract fell to 25 EUR/MWh, while electricity prices dropped to 75 EUR/MWh. Wholesale prices therefore remain higher than before the crisis, but are at approximately the level of May 2021.

Another signal is the number of hours when electricity prices on the day-ahead market fell into negative territory. There was so much electricity that its producers were willing to pay for it to be taken off their hands.