The French price shown on this page corresponds to the price on the day-ahead power market. It is only one component of the final consumer’s bill, which also includes taxes, a capacity cost, and contributions and fees paid for the use of networks.

The day-ahead market prices reflects the marginal cost of the generating units used to cover demand every hour of the year. These generating units may be in France or neighbouring countries. The marginal cost depends directly on variable costs at the units operated, particularly fuel prices for thermal power plants.

Negative price periods are rare but do occur, notably when demand is low (overnight, bank holidays, weekends, etc.) and generation capacity is difficult to modulate. The fact is that it may be more expensive for a producer to stop and then restart facilities with little flexibility than to have prices be negative for a time. Most instances are when wind and solar power cover a large share of demand, which is most often seen in Germany. As reliance on renewable energies grows, negative price periods will increase.

In 2020, the decrease in power demand during the lockdown drove the number of hours with negative price in France up to 102, well above the level observed in previous years. French prices fell as low as -€75.8/MWh on Monday, 13 April, when demand was low (Easter Monday holiday) and wind and solar power output was high in Europe.
Germany also saw more hours with negative prices during the year.