The Nordics already split the price zone Germany debates
Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland run not one electricity price but twelve — a cheap, hydro-rich north and a demand-heavy, continent-connected south. This view shows what living with split bidding zones looks like, and what it teaches the German single-zone question. The third of three takes on one congested-grid problem, alongside the German and French map stories.
Zone prices come from ENTSO-E day-ahead data (the same source the rest of the site runs on), one wholesale price per bidding zone. The zone map is approximate: bidding zones are not administrative regions, so the boundaries are built from county groupings. Pre-computed and static — no live backend.
Average day-ahead price by bidding zone. The hydro-rich north (NO4, SE1, SE2) clears cheap; the demand-heavy, interconnected south (SE4, DK1/DK2) clears dear. The split lets the price say where the grid is tight — the signal a single zone averages away.
Average day-ahead price by bidding zone. Source: ENTSO-E day-ahead prices per bidding zone; boundaries derived from Eurostat GISCO NUTS regions grouped into zones (approximate).
Within one country, the far-north and far-south zones are a single market with two prices. They converge when the whole system is tight — a deep-winter cold snap lifts every zone together — and pull apart when the north is awash in cheap hydro. The gap is widest in spring snowmelt and the shoulder seasons, while the south stays coupled to the pricier continent: the localised signal a single zone would average away.
Monthly mean day-ahead price (ENTSO-E); the shaded band is the gap between the two zones. Nordic divergence is hydro/reservoir-driven — wet springs widen it, tight winters compress it — not congestion alone. Denmark's two zones (west/east) barely diverge by comparison.
Germany has the same physical split — windy north, demand-heavy south — but clears at one national price and manages the gap with curtailment and redispatch. The Nordics priced the split instead.
The Nordics are split into many price zones, so a windy, hydro-rich north can clear at a different (often lower) price than a demand-heavy south — the prices reflect where the grid is actually constrained. This is the live version of the split Germany debates for its single DE-LU zone. Supporters say zonal prices steer investment to where it's needed; critics say they push structurally higher prices onto some regions and add complexity. Wattlas takes no side — it shows what splitting looks like in a system that already did it.
A bidding zone is the area inside which electricity clears at one wholesale price. Nordic zones group regions by where the transmission grid constrains flows — they are not administrative regions, so the map boundaries are approximate.