In November and December 2024, during “dunkelflaute” periods, the wholesale prices on the electricity exchange were exceptionally high several times. For the hour from 5pm to 6pm on Thursday, 12 December 2024, a maximum price of 936 euros per megawatt hour was traded on the day-ahead market.

The Bundesnetzagentur and the Bundeskartellamt examined whether these prices were caused or were facilitated by abusive market behaviour. No indications of a breach of antitrust law could be found, however, for the price peaks between 5 and 7 November 2024 or between 11 and 12 December 2024. During the dunkelflaute almost all of the controllable power plant fleet was put to use. At the same time, a secure electricity supply was constantly guaranteed by reserves.

A summary of the results can be accessed here (in German).

A “dunkelflaute" period in the study refers to the persistent presence of a weather pattern in which low levels of sunlight coincide with minimal to no wind resulting in hardly any wind or solar PV generation. Based on historical generation time series, the Bundesnetzagentur defines dunkelflaute as situations in which the generating capacity of wind and PV installations is continuously less than 15% of their installed capacity over a period of at least 48 hours.