Energy

Electricity, prices down 20% in March in Italy: what's behind the decrease

Electricity prices in Italy recorded a significant 20% decrease in March, with the Gme Pun Index standing at EUR 120.55 per MWh. The trend is in line with other European electricity exchanges.

15 April 2025

Elettricità, prezzi in calo del 20% a marzo in Italia: cosa c’è dietro la diminuzione

2' min read

Key points

European comparison
The causes.
Volumes.

2' min read

Electricity price down in March in Italy.

TheGme Pun Index, the electricity price index of the Gestore Mercati Elettrici, in fact recorded a sharp drop compared to February, to EUR 120.55 per MWh: EUR 29.81 less than the previous month, for a drop of 20%. This has not happened since last October, when prices started to rise to their February peaks. However, the value remains higher than in March 2024, when the Italian electricity price was 88.86 euros per MWh. The downward trend is confirmed by the price trend in April, with the average so far of 107.97 euro per MWh.

The bearish variation of the Pun Index was found in all hour groups, with an hourly minimum of EUR 8 per MWh recorded on Sunday, 16 March.

The European Comparison

As the operator writes in its monthly analysis, the decline occurs 'similarly to what has been observed on the other main European electricity exchanges'. In March, the price of electricity in France stood at 77 euros per MWh (compared to 122 in February), in Germany at 95 (compared to 128 in February), in Spain at 53 (compared to 108 in February). Italian values remain the highest.

The causes

Among the reasons for the contraction, Gme also notes in its monthly snapshot, is the slowdown in the price of gas (42.59 euro per MWh on the Italian Igi index, at the lowest since November), the drop in electricity purchases, and a growth in renewable sales, which reached 44.7% of the total in March, at the highest level since November, with production driven by wind and solar power.

Volumes

In March, electricity purchases in the system stood at 23.6 TWh (-7.8% on an hourly average over February), the lowest since November 2024. "The decrease can be observed both on the exchange component, at 19.5 TWh (-6.6%), and on the component deriving from bilateral trading, at 4.0 TWh (-13.2%), with market liquidity rising to a monthly historical high of 82.8% (+1.1 percentage points)," Gme wrote in its analysis.

The decline affected both domestic purchases, at 23 TWh (-7.2%), and exports, at 0.5 TWh (-29.9%). Declines were also seen on the supply side, where domestic sales fell, to 19.1 TWh (-5.5%) and imports, to 4.5 TWh (-16.5%), the lowest since October 2024.