Key facts: Germany
- Support scheme
- EEG market premium (Marktprämie); direct marketing mandatory ≥ 100 kW
- Balancing responsibility
- Bilanzkreisverantwortlicher — SAMAWATT is a registered BRP with all four TSOs
- Transmission system operator
- 50Hertz · Amprion · TenneT · TransnetBW
- Exchanges
- EPEX SPOT day-ahead, intraday auctions and continuous intraday · EEX futures
- Settlement interval
- 15 min
- Currency
- EUR
- Bidding zones
- DE-LU (single zone)
The German power market for renewables
Germany is the largest electricity market in Europe and the reference market for renewable direct marketing. More than 150 GW of solar and wind capacity sell their output through Direktvermarkter rather than fixed feed-in tariffs, and the share grows every year as older tariff plants reach the end of their 20-year EEG period.
The market is coupled with the rest of the EU through the single day-ahead and intraday coupling, with a single DE-LU bidding zone. High solar penetration drives frequent negative prices around midday and sharp evening ramps, which is exactly the volatility that forecasting quality and intraday re-trading turn into revenue.
EEG market premium, Redispatch 2.0 and balancing responsibility
Under the EEG, plants above 100 kW must sell through direct marketing and receive a sliding market premium on top of the market price. Since the Solarspitzengesetz, no premium is paid for quarter hours with negative prices, so avoiding negative-price production has become a core part of the service rather than an optional extra.
Every MWh has to sit in a balancing group run by a Bilanzkreisverantwortlicher who is liable for imbalance costs (Ausgleichsenergie). Plants above 100 kW are also subject to Redispatch 2.0, which requires a registered Einsatzverantwortlicher and daily schedule exchange with the grid operator. SAMAWATT covers both roles for its clients.
EPEX SPOT day-ahead and intraday trading in Germany
Day-ahead prices are set in the EPEX SPOT auction at 12:00 with 15-minute products since the switch of the European day-ahead coupling to quarter-hourly resolution. Intraday trading runs through three intraday auctions and continuous trading until five minutes before delivery, which lets a trader correct forecast errors right up to real time.
Imbalances are settled every 15 minutes at the reBAP price, which can exceed several thousand euros per MWh in stressed hours. Batteries additionally earn from FCR and aFRR tenders run by the four TSOs, stacked with spot arbitrage and imbalance optimisation.
What SAMAWATT offers in Germany
SAMAWATT is a registered Balance Responsible Party in Germany and trades under its own balancing group on EPEX SPOT. We forecast your solar, wind, hydro or battery output, bid it into the day-ahead auction, re-trade intraday and curtail automatically in negative-price periods so you keep the market premium.
Direktvermarktung, Redispatch 2.0 reporting, imbalance netting across the portfolio and battery revenue stacking across FCR, aFRR, spot and imbalance are all included. Germany is also our most data-rich market: imbalance prices on this site combine the official netztransparenz.de AEP estimate with the SAMAWATT nowcast.
- EPEX Day-Ahead (DAM)
- EPEX Intraday (IDM)
- BRP / Redispatch 2.0
- VPP orchestration
- Negative price avoidance
- 15-min settlement
- Imbalance netting