Understanding how electricity pricing works in Denmark is key to understanding why Hybird Optimisation can save money.
The Nord Pool exchange
Denmark's electricity is traded on the Nord Pool power exchange, which serves the Nordic and Baltic countries as well as parts of continental Europe. Prices are set through a day-ahead auction: every day, supply and demand bids are matched for the following day, producing a spot price for each delivery period.
Since 1 October 2025, day-ahead prices are set in 15-minute intervals rather than hourly, giving 96 price points per day. Hourly prices you see quoted elsewhere are simply the average of the four quarter-hour prices. Either way, the principle is the same: the price of electricity changes throughout the day, and the price at 3 AM can be very different from the price at 5 PM.
Denmark is split into two price zones: DK1 (Jutland and Funen, west of the Great Belt) and DK2 (Zealand and the islands east of it). Each zone gets its own spot prices, and DK1 is often slightly cheaper because most of Denmark's wind capacity is located there.
What drives price changes
Spot prices are influenced by:
Demand: Higher demand (cold winter evenings, weekday mornings) pushes prices up. Lower demand (nights, weekends, holidays) brings prices down.
Renewable generation: When wind and solar output is high, supply increases and prices tend to fall. Low wind days push prices up. In periods of very high renewable output, prices can even go negative.
Interconnectors: Denmark is connected to Norway, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK. Imports and exports through these connections affect local prices.
Fuel costs: When gas, coal, or carbon prices rise, the marginal cost of non-renewable generation increases, pushing spot prices up.
Typical price patterns
In a typical Danish day, prices tend to follow a pattern:
Cheapest: Late night and early morning (roughly 00:00-06:00), when demand is lowest.
Moderate: Midday, especially when solar output is high. On sunny, windy days, midday can be the cheapest period of all.
Most expensive: Late afternoon to early evening (roughly 16:00-20:00), when household and commercial demand peaks.
However, this pattern varies significantly by season, weather, and market conditions. Winter prices are generally more volatile than summer prices.
What it costs
It is worth separating the spot price itself from what ends up on the bill. In 2025, the raw spot price in Denmark averaged around 0.60 DKK per kWh, but individual periods ranged from negative (during high renewable output) to over 4 DKK per kWh during peak winter demand.
The total price consumers pay is higher, because grid tariffs, taxes, and VAT are added on top of the spot price. In 2025 the average total consumer price was around 2.30-2.50 DKK per kWh. The spot price is the part that varies throughout the day, and grid tariffs also vary by time of day, which is exactly the variation Hybird Optimisation takes advantage of.
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