Greece’s energy regulator is investigating whether solar producers deliberately reduced generation during periods of negative wholesale prices in August.
The review focuses on several hours between Aug. 17 and Aug. 23, when solar production unexpectedly fell around midday despite conditions when output would normally have been close to its daily peak.
Market participants have suggested that some generators may have voluntarily curtailed production to avoid selling electricity at negative prices.
Regulator RAAEY is examining whether the reduction resulted from technical or system conditions or reflected deliberate operating decisions by generators.
It has requested detailed operational data from transmission system operator ADMIE to assess the cause of the output decline and determine whether the cuts affected wholesale price formation or balancing costs.
Negative pricing creates an incentive for unsubsidised or market-exposed renewable generators to reduce output rather than pay to inject electricity into the system. The investigation could therefore become an important test of how increasingly frequent surplus-renewable periods are treated under Greek market rules.
If deliberate curtailment is established, regulators will need to determine whether the behaviour represented legitimate commercial optimisation or affected market-price formation in a way that raises compliance concerns.
