The Spread

How wide is the gap each day between the cheapest and most expensive hour of electricity?

Electricity has a price every hour, not one price a day. Over the 12 months to 14 August 2026, the gap between the cheapest and dearest hour of the German day averaged €135/MWh.

A battery buying every day's cheapest hour and selling its dearest would, over the window, have captured about €93 658 per MW of capacity — but that is an unachievable upper bound, assuming perfect foresight, zero round-trip losses and no price impact, so it overstates real battery revenue.

Prices went below zero in 534 hours of the same period.

Questions

What is the daily electricity price spread in Germany?

Over the 12 months to 14 August 2026, the gap between the cheapest and dearest hour of the German day averaged €135/MWh.

Daily spread (TB1) — Germany

Spreads are computed on hourly-averaged prices. Since the Oct-2025 quarter-hourly market switch, true 15-minute spreads are wider — these figures are a conservative lower bound.

Negative-price hours per month

Perfect-arbitrage revenue, 1 MW / 2h battery

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