Day-ahead vs. intraday market: a guide for businesses
Direct answer
The day-ahead market is the trade in electricity for the next day, where a single daily auction sets the price. The intraday market is the continuous trade on the delivery day itself, up until shortly before delivery. On day-ahead you plan your electricity in advance; on intraday you adjust when the weather or demand turns out differently. In the Netherlands the two markets complement each other.
- Clear definition
- Data-driven assessment
- Risks and opportunities visible
- Practical next steps
Day-ahead vs. intraday market: scattered information versus Energy Intelligence
Electricity is not bought at one single moment, but in successive markets that move ever closer to delivery. A business that uses or generates a lot of electricity encounters this directly through its energy contract or supplier. Think of a cold store that plans the day ahead, but still has to adjust on an unexpectedly warm day. The day-ahead market serves to plan in advance, the intraday market to correct that plan as soon as new information arrives.
- On the day-ahead market the auction closes each day around 12:00 noon; shortly after, the price for every part of the next day is fixed.
- On the intraday market you trade continuously on the delivery day itself, up to about five minutes before the moment of delivery.
- Since 1 October 2025 the Dutch day-ahead auction sets a price per quarter-hour instead of per hour, so 96 prices a day.
Insight
Traditional approach
Information is scattered across portals, documents, invoices or separate spreadsheets.
Modern approach
Data, context and interpretation are brought together into a clear decision picture.
Decision-making
Traditional approach
Choices are made based on averages, assumptions or occasional analyses.
Modern approach
Scenarios, KPIs and current measurement data make the trade-off more concrete and repeatable.
Follow-up
Traditional approach
Actions often stay non-committal or disappear into separate reports.
Modern approach
Follow-up actions, monitoring and reporting are linked to the same energy data.
How does the day-ahead market work?
The day-ahead market is the trade for the next day. Buyers and sellers state, per time block, how much electricity they want to take or deliver and at what price. Every day around 12:00 noon the auction closes. The intersection of supply and demand then sets, in one go, the price for every block of the following day. Shortly after the auction that price is fixed and everyone knows where they stand. Since 1 October 2025 the Netherlands and the rest of Europe use a quarter-hour as the smallest time unit, so 96 price moments a day instead of 24. The day-ahead market is where the largest share of electricity is traded.
- One blind auction a day, closing around 12:00 noon.
- The price for the next day is fixed shortly after the auction.
- Since 1 October 2025 a price per quarter-hour, so 96 a day.
- The largest share of all electricity is traded here.
How does the intraday market differ?
The intraday market starts where the day-ahead market stops. It opens after the day-ahead auction has closed and runs on the delivery day itself. Unlike the day-ahead auction, this is not a one-off auction but continuous trading: as soon as a buy and a sell order match, the trade is done. Here you can adjust positions up to about five minutes before the moment of delivery. That is necessary because plenty still changes after the day-ahead auction. A weather forecast is revised, solar panels deliver more or less than expected, or an installation fails. On the intraday market you correct such deviations close to the time of delivery.
- Continuous trading, not a one-off auction.
- Opens after the day-ahead auction and runs on the delivery day.
- Trading is possible up to about five minutes before delivery.
- Meant to adjust positions on new information, such as weather or outages.
What does a business with flexibility gain from this?
Anyone able to shift consumption or generation has something to offer on both markets. On the day-ahead market you can plan your consumption around the cheapest periods of the next day, for example by running a process or a battery at those moments. On the intraday market you can adjust shortly beforehand if prices or your own situation change. Important to know: whatever you do not trade in advance ends up on the imbalance market, where grid operator TenneT keeps the grid balanced in real time. Deviating from your plan there can cost or earn money. Day-ahead and intraday are precisely the places where you stay ahead of that imbalance.
- Plan consumption or generation around the favourable periods of the day-ahead market.
- Adjust on the intraday market when prices or your situation change.
- Shifting consumption only has value if you can genuinely plan it.
- Whatever you do not trade in advance is settled on TenneT's imbalance market.
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