Brussels, Belgium. Publicly available data from the Competitive Electricity Market is providing a detailed picture of prices and volumes, challenging simplified narratives in public debate about how electricity markets operate.
Public debate and market complexity
Public discussions of the electricity market, particularly during pre-election periods, often reduce complex technical issues to simplified narratives repeated across television panels, parliamentary debates and the press. Terms such as “oligopoly,” “excess profits” and “cartels” are frequently presented as straightforward explanations for a system described as fundamentally complex.
The issue arises when such characterisations are not supported by data or by an understanding of how the market operates.
Transparency and measurable data
With the introduction of the Competitive Electricity Market, a complete and measurable picture of system operations is available for the first time. Public data includes prices per time interval, energy volumes and generation breakdowns, shifting market description from estimates and assumptions to measurable data.
This allows analysis to be grounded in evidence and claims to be verified, introducing transparency and accountability. The text says public discourse often continues as if these data do not exist.
Price versus revenue and volume-weighted averages
A methodological error cited is the assumption that price equals revenue. In electricity markets, economic outcomes are determined by the volume-weighted average price, meaning the price in relation to the volume of energy actually cleared.
Solar hours, zero-price clearing and intraday patterns
Market data shows that during solar generation hours, the weighted average price is approximately €118/MWh for October 2025 to March 2026. Nearly 20 per cent of these hours clear at zero price, meaning a significant portion of energy entering the market receives no remuneration.
An analysis of intraday price evolution is described as showing a consistent pattern in which, during periods of high renewable generation, prices are significantly suppressed. Indicative prices drop to approximately €39 in October, €37 in November, €36 in February, and around €43 in March.
Outside these hours, when renewable generation is limited, prices return to higher levels, which the text describes as showing that low prices are a structural outcome of high renewable penetration during solar hours.
How should publicly available market data change the way you assess claims about electricity prices and profits?
