Why Power Prices Can Go Negative and What It Means

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-17/why-power-prices-go-negative-wind-solar-and-energy-demand?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTczOTg2MjM3MiwiZXhwIjoxNzQwNDY3MTcyLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTUjNOUUFEV1gyUFMwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiI4QTlFOEY5NURDMTE0RjMxOERCNzM3MUZCQTdCRTUwOSJ9.b22xo0ld-1QK_O8urweE7KePVIcvQVqoHkIR35j8pUY

4 points · 4 comments · view on lemmy.world

4 Comments

Flaqueman@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 1y (1 reply)

It means that electricity shouldn't be treated as a good you can speculate on.

photon_echo@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 1y

I didn't see anything in the article at all regarding speculation or futures markets of electricity with the one exception being a mention of some industrial operators signing long term contracts to buy oversupply.

Can you refer me to the section of the article you're responding to?

carl_dungeon@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y (1 reply)

This is just further spelling out the case for energy storage. It seems like there would be tons of profit potential for just running a grid scale battery storage facility plant- if you can charge at negative wholesale and sell at peak, then you would not only stand to make a profit, but you’d help even out the problem.

silence7@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 1y

For sure. I'm expecting that even with significant storage, a cost-optimal system will still need to curtail generation some of the time though.