Electricity Price Spikes and Volatility in Europe: 365 Days to 2026-11-06 (6 November 2026)

• In the 365 delivery days to 2026-11-06, the median European bidding zone had 32 price spike days (8.8% of days), counting a day as a spike when its highest market interval reached at least the larger of EUR 200/MWh and 3 times the zone's median daily average. Estonia had the most (115 days, 31.5%) and Italy Centre-North, Italy Centre-South, Italy North, and Norway West (NO5) had none.
• The most spike prone zones were Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (31.5%, 19.5%, 18.4% of days); 4 zones had no spike day at all (Italy Centre-North, Italy Centre-South, Italy North, and Norway West (NO5)).
• The highest single market interval in the data was EUR 1,097/MWh in Slovenia on 30 June 2026.
• On a typical day the dearest market interval was EUR 139/MWh above the cheapest in the median zone (median of each zone's median daily range).
• The count depends on the rule: with a 2 times rule the median zone had 28.8% spike days, with a 4 times rule 2.7%.
• Yearly average prices were far higher in 2022 (median zone EUR 241.9/MWh) than in 2025 (EUR 98.9/MWh), but the average day's swing between its dearest and cheapest hour was 0.95 times the yearly average in 2025 against 0.52 in 2022.
• All figures are day-ahead wholesale prices from ENTSO-E, not household bills. They describe price levels, not why prices moved.

• Spikes are not evenly spread. Over the 365 days, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania had the highest share of spike days (31.5%, 19.5%, 18.4%), while 4 zones had none (Italy Centre-North, Italy Centre-South, Italy North, and Norway West (NO5)). The gap between the first and last zone is 31.5 percentage points.
• The numbers depend on the rule. Across the five rules tried, the median zone had between 2.7% and 40.5% spike days, and the order of the zones agrees with this page's order only to a rank correlation of 0.27 to 0.80. Read the ranking as a broad split between calm and spike prone zones; the table under "How Much the Threshold Matters" has the detail.
• The EUR 200 floor is the binding part of the rule in 5 of 45 zones (those with a median daily average under EUR 66.7/MWh); in the others 3 times the median is higher than EUR 200.
• Day to day swings in the daily average are widest in Lithuania: one day in ten averaged below EUR 28.8/MWh and one in ten above EUR 183.0/MWh, against a median day of EUR 97.1/MWh.
• 2022 was the year of high levels: the median zone averaged EUR 241.9/MWh against EUR 98.9/MWh in 2025, and 41 of 41 zones with both years averaged less in 2025.
• The shape of the day moved the other way. The average day's swing between its dearest and cheapest hour was EUR 125.7/MWh in 2022 (0.52 times the yearly average) and EUR 80.1/MWh in 2025 (0.95 times). In 40 of 41 zones the swing was larger relative to the average in 2025.

The long run export holds each zone's yearly average price and the average shape of its day, not hour by hour prices for past years. It can show how high prices were and how large the daily swing was on the average day, but not how many spikes a year had. The swing of the average day is the price in the dearest hour minus the price in the cheapest hour of that average day. It is a floor for the typical swing on any single day, since averaging over a year smooths peaks away.

• These are day-ahead wholesale prices, set by an auction the day before delivery. They are not what a household pays: bills add network charges, taxes and supplier margins, and many tariffs are fixed for months.
• The unit is the day, not the hour. The export holds the lowest, highest and average price of each local delivery day for the last 400 days, and hour by hour prices only for about the last week, so a share of hours above a threshold over a year cannot be computed. A day counts once however long the spike lasted.
• The highest and lowest prices are single market intervals. Most zones now publish day-ahead prices in 15 minute intervals and some still publish hourly ones, so a spike day can rest on a single quarter hour. A zone's count is not strictly comparable with a count based on hourly averages.
• Each zone's spike level depends on its own median day over the same 365 days, so a zone is compared with itself. The window runs from 2025-11-06 to 2026-11-06, one full cycle of seasons. It is one year, so it says nothing about how spikes changed over time.
• Prices are in euros as published and not adjusted for inflation. Great Britain and Ukraine (IPS) are left out (priced in GBP, priced in UAH) so every figure compares.
• The page shows what prices were, not why they moved. For hours below zero see negative prices; for the daily shape see the cheapest hours of the day.