Electricity prices hit negative record in Hungary as storage solutions emerge

According to the ministry,

there were 309 instances of zero or negative electricity market prices in Hungary from January to August.

This surpasses the total number for the entire previous year, which saw 306 cases, of which 274 occurred by the end of summer. Although this represents a new record, the ministry notes that the growth rate appears to be slowing down.

In 2023, 93 zero or negative price hours were recorded, more than in the previous ten years combined, and the number tripled last year. However, this year's increase has been notably smaller.

This phenomenon is not unique to Hungary. EU member states collectively experienced nearly 10,000 negative price hours in 2024. Spain's electricity market, for instance, has recorded over 500 hours of negative prices this year, double the previous year's total, with similar patterns observed in Germany and France.

Electricity storage facilities can help manage this situation by smoothing out extreme price fluctuations. Recently, E.ON commissioned a storage facility in Soroksár that can store energy equivalent to the daily production of 350 household solar systems,

with a total capacity of 5.5 MWh and 2.5 MW power output.

The facility consists of 16 storage cabinets, each weighing 3.6 tonnes and containing modern liquid-cooled lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries with long lifecycles. The storage units are remotely controlled as part of an advanced smart grid, requiring no on-site supervision.

The new storage facility assists MAVIR, the national electricity system operator, in maintaining grid balance by managing differences between production and consumption. When there is excess power in the system, it stores energy and charges the batteries, and during power shortages, it discharges them.