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Method note · measured

The canonical hourly grid

What it measures

Every price series is averaged onto whole clock hours, so prices from before and after the quarter-hour switch compare evenly.

Inputs

  • ENTSO-E day-ahead price for the DE-LU bidding zone (Germany and Luxembourg, which share one wholesale price): hourly until the German day-ahead market moved to quarter-hour prices, quarter-hourly since

Method and weighting

The canonical hourly grid takes the day-ahead price and averages every value that falls inside the same clock hour, so four quarter-hour prices become one hourly figure. An hour the source already reports as a whole hour is unchanged. The averaging runs on the source's own timestamps, before the series is cut into local calendar days for any other method. Every daily and hourly price metric on Wattlas reads this grid, so a period that spans the quarter-hour switch compares like with like throughout.

Window

Applies to every price series on the site, whatever window the view states. Data last refreshed on .

Known limits

  • A spread or a count of hours below zero computed on this grid understates a market that trades in finer steps: averaging smooths a spike a quarter-hour price would show in full.
  • Local calendar days are cut in German time (Europe/Berlin), so the clock-change days in spring and autumn each run one hour short or long.

Used on

Sources: ENTSO-E. Each is described on the Data sources page.