# EU Day-Ahead Electricity Prices - Cheapest Hours by Zone (`domnicshadowuae/eu-day-ahead-electricity-prices`) Actor

Day-ahead wholesale electricity prices for 15 European bidding zones (Germany, France, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Nordics...) with daily min/max/mean, negative-price slots and the cheapest and most expensive N-hour window. For EV charging, heat pumps, batteries and energy analysis.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/domnicshadowuae/eu-day-ahead-electricity-prices.md
- **Developed by:** [Xinnan Zhang](https://apify.com/domnicshadowuae) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$2.00 / 1,000 zone-day of prices

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## EU Day-Ahead Electricity Prices — Cheapest Hours by Zone

Get the **day-ahead wholesale electricity price** for European bidding zones, for tomorrow or any past period up to a year, with the **cheapest and most expensive hours** of each day already worked out.

### Use it for

- Scheduling EV charging, heat pumps, pool pumps or batteries in the cheapest window
- Spotting negative-price hours
- Energy cost dashboards, research and price history exports to CSV, Excel or JSON

### Supported bidding zones

DE-LU (Germany/Luxembourg), AT, FR, NL, BE, PL, CZ, CH, IT-North, DK1, DK2, SE4, NO2, HU, SI. Hourly and 15-minute prices are both handled (the European day-ahead market moved to 15-minute products on 2025-10-01).

### Example input

```json
{"biddingZones": ["DE-LU", "FR"], "startDate": "2026-10-21", "endDate": "2026-10-21", "windowHours": 3}
```

Leave the dates empty to get today and tomorrow. Tomorrow's prices are published around 13:00 CET.

### Output

One dataset row per zone and local day:

```json
{"biddingZone": "DE-LU", "timeZone": "Europe/Berlin", "unit": "EUR / MWh", "date": "2026-10-21",
 "resolution_minutes": 15, "min": 41.2, "max": 168.9, "mean": 97.4, "negative_slots": 0,
 "cheapest_window": {"start": "2026-10-21T02:00:00+02:00", "end": "2026-10-21T05:00:00+02:00", "average_price": 52.1},
 "priciest_window": {"start": "2026-10-21T17:45:00+02:00", "end": "2026-10-21T20:45:00+02:00", "average_price": 151.3},
 "prices": [{"start": "2026-10-21T00:00:00+02:00", "price": 88.5}, "..."]}
```

Times are local to the zone. Turn off **Include every price slot** for summary rows only.

### Pricing

Pay per result: one charge per zone and day returned. A day not yet published returns nothing and costs nothing.

### Also available as an API

The same data is available per call over HTTP (x402, paid in USDC) and as an MCP tool for AI assistants at https://bess-x402.onrender.com.

Price data: [Energy-Charts](https://energy-charts.info) by Fraunhofer ISE, sourced from Bundesnetzagentur | [SMARD.de](https://www.smard.de), licensed [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Window statistics are derived calculations. Not investment advice.

# Actor input Schema

## `biddingZones` (type: `array`):

Day-ahead market areas, e.g. DE-LU for Germany/Luxembourg.

## `startDate` (type: `string`):

First local day, YYYY-MM-DD. Empty means today in each zone.

## `endDate` (type: `string`):

Last local day, inclusive. Empty means the day after the start (tomorrow's prices are published around 13:00 CET).

## `windowHours` (type: `number`):

Length of the cheapest and most expensive consecutive window reported for each day.

## `includePrices` (type: `boolean`):

Add the full list of hourly or 15-minute prices to each day.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "biddingZones": [
    "DE-LU",
    "FR"
  ],
  "windowHours": 3,
  "includePrices": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `days` (type: `string`):

Min, max, mean, negative slots, cheapest and priciest window and, optionally, every price slot.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "biddingZones": [
        "DE-LU",
        "FR"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("domnicshadowuae/eu-day-ahead-electricity-prices").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "biddingZones": [
        "DE-LU",
        "FR",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("domnicshadowuae/eu-day-ahead-electricity-prices").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "biddingZones": [
    "DE-LU",
    "FR"
  ]
}' |
apify call domnicshadowuae/eu-day-ahead-electricity-prices --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,domnicshadowuae/eu-day-ahead-electricity-prices"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/IM48EF9GOiciN5Yn9/builds/y0YruNAVlW3ICeIkr/openapi.json