Electricity prices in Belgium’s wholesale market will drop to their lowest level in a year on Saturday.
During several hours on Saturday, electricity prices will become highly negative, reaching as low as -€200 per megawatt-hour just before 2 p.m.
The last time prices were this low was in May 2022.
The decrease is due mainly to low demand on the weekend, combined with abundant solar power production, according to Matthias Detremmerie of energy provider Elindus.
Negative electricity prices are increasingly common in spring and summer, especially on weekends.
Consumers with dynamic power contracts can benefit from these prices by being paid to use electricity, although taxes and levies still apply. Conversely, they must pay when feeding surplus power back into the grid.
Large industrial players also profit by increasing their energy consumption — for instance, freezing companies often use the opportunity to lower storage temperatures further.
Households with fixed or variable tariffs typically notice little impact from negative prices.
However, some energy providers are adapting by offering promotions. For instance, in summer, Sunday electricity is sometimes free, while programmes such as Engie’s 'happy hours' provide free electricity during periods of excess supply to encourage shifting consumption to high-availability times.
Price drops are not limited to Belgium.
In France, electricity prices are set to sink to their lowest point since 2013 on Saturday, fuelled by strong solar performance due to sunny skies across Europe and mild temperatures that increase photovoltaic efficiency.
Germany is also expecting record electricity production from solar installations this weekend.
