Negative electricity prices:
what does this mean for you?
On Sunday, April 26, rates plummeted to -37 cents per kWh. On Friday, May 1, they dropped even further: to -47 cents. Two records in one week. We explain what it means and how you can intelligently respond.
How can electricity prices become negative?
On the European power exchange (EPEX), the price for the next day is determined every day, per fifteen-minute interval. Supply and demand dictate this price. With a lot of sun, a lot of wind, and low demand, supply can become so abundant that producers start paying to get rid of their electricity. This is when the market price turns negative.
On May 1, the picture was perfect: it was Labor Day in Germany, Belgium, and France. Companies were closed, demand was low — but the sun was shining brightly. German producers tried to offload their surplus here, and rates tumbled.
Negative prices are no longer exceptional. They are becoming increasingly normal — and in 2026, analysts expect even more negative hours than the 585 in 2025. Easter Monday 2026 already broke a record with over 17 hours of negative prices in a single day.
What do you, as a consumer, really notice?
Here lies an important nuance. When you read in the news about "hundreds of hours of negative electricity prices," it usually refers to the bare exchange price — without taxes. For you as a consumer, these costs simply count.
In 2026, you will quickly pay €0.13 to €0.14 in fixed costs (energy tax + purchasing fee) per kWh. The bare exchange price therefore has to drop below -€0.14 before you actually start earning money. This only happened for 5 hours in all of 2025.
What made last Friday special: the price of -47 cents in the dynamic suppliers' app already included taxes and purchasing costs. So that really means earning money for consuming electricity.
What can you do on such a day?
A day with negative prices is the ideal day for smart consumption. Apps from Tibber, Frank Energy, and Zonneplan show the hourly or quarter-hourly prices in advance so you can plan.
Shift consumption
Run the washing machine, dryer, and dishwasher between 11:00 AM and 4:00 PM. Many appliances have a delayed start function.
Charge electric car
At -47 cents per kWh, a full 75 kWh battery will cost you approximately €35 less net than at an average time.
Smart boiler control
Do you have a buffer tank or a smart thermostat? Create a hot water "supply" during the day for the evening.
Temporarily pause inverter
Are you feeding back power during negative prices? Then, with some contracts, you pay for that power. Check your inverter app.
The home battery as the ideal partner
This is where it gets really interesting. A home battery is essentially made for days like May 1st. The difference between the lowest rate (-47 cents) and the evening peak (around €0.30) was almost 80 cents per kWh.
For a 5 kWh battery that charges during the day and discharges in the evening, this means a potential profit of around €4 in a single day. This might sound modest, but this pattern repeats dozens of times a year.
A plug-in home battery costing €1,395 to €1,500 can, with active use, yield €200 to €400 per year through smart charging and discharging — in addition to the savings on peak power that you already achieve by storing your own solar energy.
Condition: a battery needs an Energy Management System that reads price data itself and automatically charges and discharges. The Marstek Venus E 3.0 and the Duravolt Plug-in Battery do this standard via the included P1 meter or CT sensor.
What changes at the end of 2026?
This is a crucial moment to pause and consider. The net metering scheme — where you can fully offset electricity fed back to the grid against your consumption, including taxes — ends on December 31, 2026.
From January 1, 2027, you will receive a maximum of 50% of the bare supply tariff for electricity fed back. Specifically: if you currently pay €0.28 per kWh, you will only get €0.05 to €0.09 per kWh back for what you feed into the grid. Four to six times less.
Conclusion: self-consumption (or storage in a battery) will become drastically more valuable than feeding back to the grid from 2027 onwards. Those who invest in a home battery now are already positioning themselves for this new reality.
To be fair: it won't make you rich
An average household consumes around 8 kWh per day. Even if you were to consume all 8 kWh at the lowest point of such a day, it amounts to a few extra euros that you gain. The real advantage lies in the structural patterns throughout the year.
The average savings for a household with a dynamic contract and conscious consumption are between 15 to 21% compared to a fixed contract. With a home battery, this can increase to 30 to 40%.
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