Netherlands — physical cross-border flows, 2026

Every month of the year, every border, in energy and in money. Flows are measured; each megawatt-hour is valued at Netherlands's own day-ahead price for the quarter-hour it actually crossed in.

Month by month

All borders together, with consumption for scale.

Month Consumption, MWh Physical exports Physical imports Zone price, €/MWh Difference € Import ÷ consumption
MWh€/MWh€ MWh€/MWh€
January 11,843,837 4,257,475 105.75 450,210,062 999,266 98.90 98,822,777 107.59 351,387,284 8.4%
February 10,254,408 3,573,681 94.90 339,125,626 1,338,532 91.34 122,263,493 92.95 216,862,133 13.1%
March 10,108,458 2,793,274 81.37 227,302,547 2,398,279 118.70 284,678,398 98.90 −57,375,851 23.7%
April 9,087,065 3,011,232 70.95 213,634,835 2,042,962 105.91 216,372,105 84.59 −2,737,271 22.5%
May 9,207,737 2,928,142 87.99 257,648,312 1,860,741 103.17 191,975,570 94.91 65,672,742 20.2%
June 9,367,471 2,788,516 99.32 276,961,847 1,337,805 116.03 155,230,714 110.08 121,731,133 14.3%
July 9,547,385 3,122,642 103.00 321,628,707 1,565,093 108.39 169,636,941 105.86 151,991,766 16.4%
August 6,895,240 3,867,074 122.55 473,891,610 1,081,387 114.46 123,770,283 125.41 350,121,327 15.7%
September33.5% of hours 2,126,500 929,499 146.45 136,124,698 496,027 148.22 73,520,812 146.03 62,603,886 23.3%
Total 78,438,102 27,271,535 98.88 2,696,528,244 13,120,093 109.47 1,436,271,094 103.10 1,260,257,150 16.7%

Consumption is measured separately, as the hourly average power summed over the month — not by adding up readings, since sources publish at different rates. The last column puts imports next to it for scale; it is not a dependency figure, because part of what enters passes straight through to another neighbour.

Where the difference comes from

1,260,257,150 € for 14,151,442 MWh that stayed in the country works out at 89.06 € per megawatt-hour, in a month that averaged 103.10.

  • Energy that stayed, at the month's average price −1,459,007,463 115.8%
  • What came in arrived above that average 83,595,322 -6.6%
  • What went out left below it 115,154,991 -9.1%

The first line is energy the country needed and got. The other two — 198,750,313 € together — come not from how much moved but from when: cheap hours to sell in, expensive hours to buy in. That is the price of a timing mismatch, not a loss.

Official validation

The measured physical flow, checked against ANRE's published commercial trade.

Month Physical net, MWh Commercial net, MWh Difference, MWh Status
January ——— AWAITING OFFICIAL ANRE DATA
February ——— AWAITING OFFICIAL ANRE DATA
March ——— AWAITING OFFICIAL ANRE DATA
April ——— AWAITING OFFICIAL ANRE DATA
May ——— AWAITING OFFICIAL ANRE DATA
June ——— AWAITING OFFICIAL ANRE DATA
July ——— AWAITING OFFICIAL ANRE DATA
August ——— AWAITING OFFICIAL ANRE DATA
September ——— AWAITING OFFICIAL ANRE DATA

Gross volumes differ by design: the official indicators include transits, and a transit is counted once entering and once leaving, while a physical border sees it only once. Net figures converge, because transits cancel out — which is why the comparison is made on the net.

The percentage relates the difference to the month's commercial net. In a month with a small net, the same difference in MWh yields a larger percentage — which is why the difference is always shown in MWh as well.

ANRE publishes these exchanges as a physical balance in GWh. It publishes no import or export value and no average price per direction, so no money comparison is possible.

Physical cross-border flows and commercial electricity trades measure different phenomena. ANRE data is shown as an independent official benchmark and should not be interpreted as an exact reconciliation.

Border by border

Germany

Month by month, Netherlands's side of this border.

Month Physical exports MWh €/MWh € Physical imports MWh €/MWh € Difference €
January 1,814,464 107.95 195,868,976 516,047 92.83 47,902,544 147,966,432
February 1,020,636 102.34 104,455,213 979,619 87.82 86,027,501 18,427,712
March 812,925 47.13 38,316,371 1,785,903 119.22 212,914,966 −174,598,595
April 903,105 68.80 62,132,906 1,443,396 100.45 144,986,575 −82,853,668
May 766,289 101.75 77,967,063 1,480,360 96.68 143,116,065 −65,149,002
June 1,023,960 119.09 121,940,925 859,251 97.73 83,974,564 37,966,361
July 1,440,229 117.02 168,539,038 1,061,614 101.45 107,700,405 60,838,633
August 1,679,228 138.87 233,188,214 748,657 99.81 74,726,458 158,461,756
September 274,436 170.17 46,700,891 334,127 139.55 46,626,348 74,544
Total 9,735,274 107.76 1,049,109,597 9,208,974 102.94 947,975,424 101,134,173

Belgium

Month by month, Netherlands's side of this border.

Month Physical exports MWh €/MWh € Physical imports MWh €/MWh € Difference €
January 1,492,319 103.17 153,962,093 313 124.86 39,035 153,923,058
February 1,430,692 93.60 133,914,998 1,109 7.46 8,276 133,906,722
March 1,100,351 105.92 116,551,205 14,852 38.42 570,648 115,980,557
April 1,211,511 85.50 103,587,879 26,351 109.03 2,873,096 100,714,783
May 1,115,110 90.92 101,389,316 31,833 79.04 2,516,054 98,873,262
June 1,002,557 90.90 91,130,892 23,090 179.91 4,154,176 86,976,716
July 885,654 96.54 85,501,968 49,155 105.82 5,201,629 80,300,339
August 1,318,558 115.42 152,184,859 4,330 175.14 758,406 151,426,453
September 474,214 141.83 67,258,072 1,805 113.61 205,076 67,052,997
Total 10,030,966 100.24 1,005,481,284 152,839 106.82 16,326,397 989,154,887

Denmark

Month by month, Netherlands's side of this border.

Month Physical exports MWh €/MWh € Physical imports MWh €/MWh € Difference €
January 503,312 111.77 56,254,484 197,068 90.77 17,887,311 38,367,173
February 649,916 93.28 60,622,753 89,585 91.04 8,155,760 52,466,993
March 410,558 90.00 36,950,129 269,412 108.10 29,123,172 7,826,957
April 476,187 63.34 30,160,836 239,187 114.77 27,450,728 2,710,108
May 608,314 88.53 53,852,615 144,081 118.73 17,107,255 36,745,360
June 444,476 91.03 40,460,141 250,492 140.63 35,226,301 5,233,840
July 396,114 89.57 35,478,053 330,509 118.78 39,257,220 −3,779,167
August 435,375 106.82 46,507,030 235,968 139.69 32,961,761 13,545,269
September 129,632 131.56 17,054,108 92,528 163.58 15,135,590 1,918,518
Total 4,053,884 93.08 377,340,148 1,848,830 120.24 222,305,099 155,035,050

United Kingdom

Month by month, Netherlands's side of this border.

Month Physical exports MWh €/MWh € Physical imports MWh €/MWh € Difference €
January 357,508 98.56 35,237,649 132,686 119.51 15,857,059 19,380,590
February 246,627 81.78 20,169,191 231,010 103.68 23,951,947 −3,782,755
March 359,228 84.29 30,278,739 192,845 120.43 23,224,740 7,053,999
April 307,238 46.40 14,256,393 220,954 121.47 26,838,440 −12,582,047
May 329,591 55.56 18,312,224 132,859 147.07 19,539,234 −1,227,010
June 317,523 73.79 23,429,889 204,973 155.51 31,875,673 −8,445,784
July 399,948 80.23 32,088,585 122,945 141.37 17,380,935 14,707,650
August 433,722 96.84 42,001,081 92,278 165.92 15,310,404 26,690,677
September 45,425 100.54 4,567,167 36,852 139.92 5,156,230 −589,062
Total 2,796,812 78.78 220,340,920 1,367,402 131.00 179,134,663 41,206,258

Norway

Month by month, Netherlands's side of this border.

Month Physical exports MWh €/MWh € Physical imports MWh €/MWh € Difference €
January 89,872 98.88 8,886,859 153,152 111.89 17,136,828 −8,249,969
February 225,811 88.41 19,963,470 37,208 110.73 4,120,009 15,843,460
March 110,212 47.24 5,206,103 135,268 139.32 18,844,872 −13,638,769
April 113,190 30.89 3,496,820 113,074 125.79 14,223,266 −10,726,446
May 108,837 56.30 6,127,094 71,608 135.42 9,696,962 −3,569,868
July 697 30.21 21,064 870 111.26 96,752 −75,689
August 190 54.93 10,426 154 85.82 13,254 −2,828
September 5,791 94.02 544,459 30,714 208.29 6,397,569 −5,853,110
Total 654,599 67.61 44,256,295 542,049 130.12 70,529,512 −26,273,217

Method

Not an invoice. Cross-border electricity is not sold country to country: the markets are coupled and the physical flow is the outcome of a shared auction. These figures value the measured flow at this zone's own day-ahead price, so both directions can be compared on the same scale.

Flows are measured, quarter-hour by quarter-hour; hourly borders are spread across the four quarters they cover, so every megawatt-hour meets the price that was actually in force. Energy entering the country is not the same as energy consumed here — some of it passes through.

A country between two others carries energy that is neither produced nor consumed there. Energy entering is not energy used.