How dynamic electricity prices work
A short, plain guide to the prices SpotWave shows: where they come from, what is added on top, and when the next day's prices become known. It applies to every market on the site; country-specific figures are on each country page and on the data sources page.
What is a dynamic electricity contract?
With a fixed or variable contract you pay one rate per kWh for months at a time, set by your supplier. With a dynamic contract the energy part of your rate follows the wholesale market: every hour — and in most of Europe now every quarter-hour — has its own price. Your supplier passes that market price on, adds taxes and network costs, and usually charges a small markup per kWh and a fixed monthly fee.
That makes the timing of your consumption matter. Running a washing machine, a heat pump or an electric car charger when the price is low costs less than doing the same at the evening peak. It also means you share the market's ups and downs: a cold, windless week can be noticeably more expensive.
How is the price built up?
The all-in price on each country page stacks up to four layers:
- Wholesale price: the day-ahead market price for your bidding zone. This is the only layer that changes through the day.
- Energy tax and levies: per-kWh taxes set by the government. They are the same at every hour, so they lift the whole curve.
- Grid fees: the cost of transporting power to your home. Many countries charge part of it per kWh; others, such as the Netherlands, charge a fixed yearly amount instead.
- VAT: charged on top of everything above.
SpotWave leaves out the supplier's own markup and fixed fees, because they differ per contract. Taxes and grid fees are indicative national figures for a typical household; your own network operator, contract or tax situation can differ. The data sources page lists where each figure comes from.
When are tomorrow's prices known?
Most of Europe trades electricity for the next day in one coordinated day-ahead auction. Bids for the whole of tomorrow close at 12:00 CET, the market is cleared, and the results are usually public shortly before 13:00 CET. Since October 2025 the auction sets a price for every 15-minute period rather than every hour.
SpotWave reads the results from the ENTSO-E Transparency Platform, where they normally appear around 13:00 CET. On some days publication runs late, for instance after a technical problem in the auction. Until then tomorrow's prices simply don't exist yet, and SpotWave says so instead of showing an estimate. See tomorrow's prices in Germany or in the Netherlands, or pick any other country.
Why do prices sometimes go negative?
When a lot of wind and solar power is generated while demand is low — a sunny weekend around midday, a windy night — supply can exceed what the market can absorb. Some producers would rather pay than switch off, for example because they receive support per kWh produced or because stopping and restarting a plant is costly. The clearing price then drops below zero.
A negative wholesale price doesn't automatically mean you are paid to use electricity. Energy tax, grid fees and VAT still apply, so the all-in price only turns negative when the wholesale price falls further than those fixed layers. If you have solar panels on a dynamic contract, feeding power back during negative prices can cost money, depending on your contract.
How do you get the most out of it?
Look at the whole day's curve, not just the current price. The cheapest periods are often around midday on sunny days and during the night; the most expensive tend to be the early-evening peak. Moving flexible use — laundry, dishwasher, heat pump, car — into the cheap periods is where the savings come from. Charging an electric car is the largest flexible load in most homes; WhenToCharge works out the cheapest window for you.
Prices per country
Today's prices: Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, France, Spain, Italy and Poland — or compare every market. This guide is also available in Dutch.