LinkedIn·Tuesday, 28 July 2026·29d ago

Almost every energy conversation I have eventually lands on one number: the price per megawatt hour. I understand why. It is specific, it…

Nina Waffenschmidt

CEO at PerPetum Energy

Almost every energy conversation I have eventually lands on one number: the price per megawatt hour. I understand why. It is specific, it fits in a spreadsheet, and it feels like the thing you are buying. It is also one of the least complete numbers in an energy contract. An average hides what actually costs you money. Take yesterday in Belgium. The day averaged around 76€/MWh. But in the early afternoon, when solar flooded the grid, the price briefly dropped just below zero. By the evening peak, at 20:45, it had climbed to 187€. Same day, same grid, and most of the cost concentrated in a handful of evening hours. I am German, and I now spend much of my time across Belgium, France and the Netherlands. What strikes me is how the same shape appears everywhere. That same day, Germany and France followed almost exactly the same curve: at or below zero around midday, then a climb past 170€ in the evening. This is not a local quirk. It is becoming the structural rhythm of power markets across the region. So the number I pay attention to is not the price per MWh. It is simpler and harder at once: how many of those expensive hours can a site avoid? That is where a battery and active steering earn their keep. Charge when energy is cheap and abundant, sometimes free, in the middle of the day. Draw on it through the evening peak, when every megawatt-hour from the grid costs the most. The site keeps running. The expensive hours simply pass it by. An average tells you what energy costs on paper. The peaks tell you what it costs in practice. The difference between the two is where the business case is won. For the Finance leaders I speak with, that shift, from the headline price to the hours you avoid, changes everything.