This is a peculiarity that occurs less and less rarely on the European wholesale electricity market.
In the night from Sunday to Monday, the price of the electron in France remained for four hours in negative territory, reports the specialized agency Montel.
France, but also Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and the Scandinavian countries recorded negative hourly prices reaching up to - 10.48 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) across the Rhine .
In France, the electron has fallen to - 7.97 euros / MWh.
In question, a very important wind production in central and northern Europe, coupled with a very low night consumption.
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When a person responsible for balancing the electricity network - such as the EDF management in charge of trading, the DOAAT - notices overproduction, he is ready to offer his kilowatt-hours at a negative price.
Indeed, if the operator of the high voltage network - RTE in France - observes a prolonged and excessive imbalance, it will ask the power plants which can do so to produce less.
An action that he will re-invoice to the balance responsible.
He is therefore ready to pay to get rid of his excess kilowatt-hours to avoid the penalties.
"Restrain production in the event of an extended period"
The last significant episode of negative prices on the spot market dates back to April.
As a result of the containment, demand for energy had fallen, while wind production was at high levels.
This phenomenon appeared at the end of the 2000s, in Northern Europe, with the development of significant wind power production capacities.
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"This trend is significant enough for a premium to have been implemented for new wind farms, to encourage them to restrict their production in the event of a prolonged period of negative prices"
, explains Nicolas Goldberg, senior manager at Colombus Consulting.
