Electricity That Costs Nothing–Or Even Less? It's Happening More and More

My understanding is that the negative prices come from a tension between long-term agreements and short term markets.

For example, a solar or wind farm may enter into an agreement with a company which promises to buy all the produced energy over a certain period, at a fixed price per MWh. (In practice this seems to be implemented as a "contract for difference", but it amounts to the same thing.)

The buyer does this because they estimate that it will result in a cheaper energy bill overall. Even if they sometimes have to pay for energy they don't need. And even if they sometimes have to pay a positive price while the short term market prices are negative.

The seller is then shielded from short term prices, and will continue to produce and get paid for energy which isn't needed. The price signal isn't getting through.

If it would turn out that balancing the grid becomes problematic, then I think this could be fixed with regulations that forces some of the short term price signals to always "get through".

E.g. on the producer side, it could be forbidden to get paid a positive price for energy produced when the short term price is negative. On the consumer side, certain types of consumption that can be scheduled (like charging an EV) could be forced to use a contract that follows the short term market price.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/may/...

Sometimes his neighbors came over to power up too, generating even more cash.

Van Diesen’s situation reflects the strange, new dynamics of electricity that could soon become the norm in many parts of the world: A big increase in wind and solar power has pushed wholesale prices to zero or below for many hours of the year, spurring a sea change in the way people use power—based on whether the sun is shining or the wind is blowing.

Most people pay a fixed price for each kilowatt-hour of electricity they consume throughout the day. The price is set by their power company and only changes at infrequent intervals—once a week, a month or even only once a year.

Van Diesen, a software salesman, recently signed up to receive electricity from two providers that charge him the hourly price on the Dutch wholesale power market, rather than a fixed price that resets monthly or annually. When the price of electricity falls low enough, smart meters in his house begin charging his two electric cars.'

...

‘is this some sort of DDOS attack or are there just a lot of interesting articles that have come out in the past few hours?

Or have I fallen prey to a statistical anomaly?