Spain — 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 Spain'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 22,343,391 1,683,472 64.33 108,294,940 847,477 87.15 73,861,577 70.91 34,433,363 3.8%
February 19,071,154 1,088,725 7.69 8,368,546 701,726 21.85 15,329,942 14.10 −6,961,396 3.7%
March 19,957,317 1,685,407 20.35 34,302,471 635,845 71.48 45,451,092 40.38 −11,148,621 3.2%
April 17,780,021 1,614,731 23.20 37,469,199 961,659 57.78 55,560,741 43.43 −18,091,542 5.4%
May 18,712,544 1,750,379 28.82 50,445,607 792,069 64.00 50,692,245 53.91 −246,638 4.2%
June 20,675,745 1,864,881 57.34 106,932,076 698,596 76.21 53,241,227 70.45 53,690,849 3.4%
July 23,410,172 1,762,095 71.83 126,566,525 728,826 109.68 79,936,949 104.84 46,629,576 3.1%
August 21,618,688 1,850,246 77.53 143,454,861 710,610 149.75 106,416,168 117.15 37,038,693 3.3%
September25.7% of hours 5,639,743 461,277 109.14 50,345,855 335,072 158.07 52,964,296 148.24 −2,618,440 5.9%
Total 169,208,774 13,761,215 48.41 666,180,081 6,411,880 83.20 533,454,237 69.26 132,725,844 3.8%

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

132,725,844 € for 7,349,335 MWh that stayed in the country works out at 18.06 € per megawatt-hour, in a month that averaged 69.26.

  • Energy that stayed, at the month's average price −509,031,765 383.5%
  • What came in arrived above that average 89,352,721 -67.3%
  • What went out left below it 286,953,200 -216.2%

The first line is energy the country needed and got. The other two — 376,305,921 € 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.

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

Portugal

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

Month Physical exports MWh €/MWh € Physical imports MWh €/MWh € Difference €
January 681,958 75.62 51,572,579 370,515 61.07 22,627,384 28,945,195
February 186,578 -0.03 −5,735 434,479 15.82 6,872,742 −6,878,477
March 752,219 9.63 7,240,771 315,614 70.06 22,110,369 −14,869,598
April 1,203,498 20.82 25,058,828 135,330 68.40 9,257,129 15,801,700
May 1,332,718 21.68 28,897,111 108,856 104.10 11,331,790 17,565,320
June 1,451,339 49.29 71,531,411 21,924 113.31 2,484,300 69,047,111
July 1,593,289 69.41 110,595,577 14,715 188.63 2,775,600 107,819,976
August 1,598,148 75.98 121,425,534 22,542 181.46 4,090,578 117,334,956
September 406,603 107.83 43,844,165 2,412 221.20 533,429 43,310,736
Total 9,206,351 49.98 460,160,240 1,426,387 57.55 82,083,321 378,076,919

France

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

Month Physical exports MWh €/MWh € Physical imports MWh €/MWh € Difference €
January 1,001,514 56.64 56,722,361 476,961 107.42 51,234,193 5,488,168
February 902,147 9.28 8,374,282 267,248 31.65 8,457,200 −82,919
March 933,188 29.00 27,061,700 320,230 72.89 23,340,723 3,720,977
April 411,234 30.18 12,410,371 826,329 56.04 46,303,612 −33,893,241
May 417,662 51.59 21,548,496 683,213 57.61 39,360,455 −17,811,958
June 413,542 85.60 35,400,665 676,672 75.01 50,756,927 −15,356,262
July 168,805 94.61 15,970,948 714,111 108.05 77,161,349 −61,190,401
August 252,098 87.38 22,029,327 688,068 148.71 102,325,590 −80,296,263
September 54,674 118.92 6,501,690 332,660 157.61 52,430,867 −45,929,177
Total 4,554,864 45.23 206,019,840 4,985,493 90.54 451,370,916 −245,351,075

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.