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Realized Value per MWh Calculator

Q: How is realized value per MWh calculated, and why is it different from capture price?

Realized value per MWh is total settlement revenue, including balancing costs and credits, divided by metered production in MWh. Capture price is only the day-ahead or forward leg of that revenue divided by the same production. The difference between the two is the per-MWh effect of balancing settlement.

Question this page answers How is realized value per MWh calculated, and why is it different from capture price?

Capture price tells you what the market paid for the volume you sold ahead. Realized value per MWh tells you what stayed after settlement closed. The gap between them is usually where the argument about optimization actually is.

Inputs

Realized value per MWh

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Total settlement revenue divided by metered production.
Capture price per MWh

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Day-ahead leg only, over the same production.
Gap per MWh

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Realized minus capture. This is the balancing effect.
Total settlement revenue

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Day-ahead revenue plus signed balancing settlement.

The formula

realized value per MWh = (day-ahead revenue + balancing settlement) / metered production
capture price per MWh  =  day-ahead revenue / metered production
gap per MWh            =  balancing settlement / metered production

Balancing settlement is signed. Enter it negative when the imbalance position cost money over the period, positive when it earned. The gap is then just the balancing leg expressed per unit of energy, which makes it comparable across assets of very different sizes.

Why the two numbers separate

Capture price is a volume-weighted market price. It says nothing about whether the volume was delivered when it was sold. Realized value per MWh includes the settlement of that difference, so it moves with forecast error, with intraday liquidity at the hours the portfolio is long or short, and with how imbalance is priced in the market in question. Two portfolios can capture almost the same price and end up several currency units per MWh apart once balancing closes.

Curtailment is handled separately because curtailed energy never reaches the meter. Including it in the denominator answers a different question: what the site earned per MWh it could have produced. Both numbers are useful, they just are not interchangeable, and mixing them is a common source of disagreement in portfolio reviews.

What this tool does not do

It does not model intraday trading legs separately. Fold them into the day-ahead figure or extend the calculation.
It does not net across assets. Portfolio netting changes the balancing leg materially and needs half-hourly or quarter-hourly data.
It does not include grid fees, certificates, PPA adjustments or CfD payments. Add them to the revenue side if your settlement does.
Results are arithmetic on the numbers entered. Nothing here is a projection or a promise about future periods.

Run this on real data

The version of this calculation that matters uses quarter-hourly metered volumes and the actual imbalance settlement for each period, not period totals. Ask for the benchmark to be run on your own portfolio data.