Firms get paid for using electricity as wholesale prices in negative territory

A NUMBER of companies were effectively paid for using electricity last month, when for the first time wholesale electricity prices fell into negative territory.

Since the creation of the all-island single electricity market in 2007, wholesale market prices for electricity have been set on a half-hourly basis. One of those half-hour periods — on the night of September 21 — saw a once-off drop into negative territory in prices; with the wholesale costs being measured, briefly, at minus €88 per MWh (megawatt hours).

This meant that certain commercial electricity users benefited from a payout, depending on their energy usage at the specific time. The benefit would also have only been seen by customers of independent business-to-business energy supplier VAYU — as it is the only supplier to include the prospect of negative wholesale price movements into its customer price plan.