<article><p class="lead">Spanish power prices turned negative for a number of hours yesterday in the intra-day continuous market in a rare instance for the country, amid a combination of high renewable generation and low demand.</p><p>Negative prices were recorded in eight hours yesterday, with average negative prices for three of them: minus €0.09/MWh in hour 10, minus €0.59/MWh in hour 11 and minus €0.45/MWh in hour 18.</p><p>The lowest contract prices were seen at minus €9.25/MWh in hour 10, minus €7.01/MWh in hour 11 and minus €5.62/MWh in hour 18, data from the Iberian power exchange Omie showed. Negative prices were also seen on Saturday, as low as minus €0.62/MWh in hour 16, although the average hourly price turned out positive.</p><p>This is only the second time that average hourly negative prices were recorded in Spain, according to Omie data going back to June 2018, when the single intra-day power market coupling (SIDC), formerly known as XBID, <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/1697727">launched in the Iberian peninsula</a>. Average negative prices were previously registered just in hour 5 on 19 December last year at minus €0.66/MWh, with a contract low of minus €10/MWh.</p><p>And overall, negative prices were recorded on just two other occasions in Iberia, on 4 March and 15 December last year.</p><p>Under current rules, prices cannot go negative either in the Omie day-ahead market or the local intra-day market.</p><p>The Omie day-ahead pool settled at €8.16/MWh for delivery yesterday, the lowest so far this year. The lowest hourly settlement was €1.95/MWh for hour 17, also a fresh low for 2020.</p><p>Power consumption in mainland Spain was scheduled at an hourly average of only 19.78GW yesterday, while wind output was expected at 9.35GW, weighing sharply on prices.</p><p>The low prices prompted <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2093449">Spanish nuclear plants to reduce output</a> over the weekend. Nuclear output averaged 5.27GW on Saturday and 5.09GW yesterday, nearly 2GW below the country's capacity of 7.11GW.</p><p class="bylines"><i>By Juan Weik</i></p></article>
