One country, one price, on a grid that can't move the power

Why one price for a whole country hides a bottleneck

Germany and Luxembourg form one bidding zone: one wholesale price for every hour, whether the power is used in Hamburg or in Munich. That price assumes power can flow freely anywhere inside the zone. Most of the wind turbines stand in the north, while much of the demand and industry sits in the south and west, and the lines between them cannot carry all the power on a windy day.

When the lines fill, the result of the auction cannot be delivered as traded. The grid operators step in afterwards and pay plants in the north to turn down and plants in the south, or across the border, to turn up. This is called redispatch, and its cost is mostly paid through network charges. Redispatch happens after the price is set, so the bottleneck leaves no mark on the price itself. The charts read it from the regional balance of generation and demand and from the redispatch volumes.

One proposed remedy is to split the zone, so that the price falls in the north when its power is trapped and rises in the south. Supporters say lower northern prices would draw new batteries, electrolysers and factories to where power is plentiful. Opponents say southern industry would pay more, and the economy ministry judged the expected gains smaller than the cost of redrawing the zone. ENTSO-E's bidding-zone review, published in April 2025, studied splits into two to five zones, and in December 2025 the economy ministry's action plan kept the single zone. The third chart sets out the published range with its sources and leaves the verdict to the reader.

Germany North–South shows the same imbalance for each grid operator's area, and Curtailment shows the wind and solar switched off because the lines were full.