The Day-Ahead Market (MGP) is where purchase and sale offers for electricity are traded for each interval of the following day. It is organised by the market operator GME (Gestore dei Mercati Energetici) and hosts most transactions: in 2025 its liquidity, i.e. the share of volumes traded on the exchange out of the total including bilateral contracts, was 81.9%. This is where the PUN Index GME, to which indexed contracts are linked, is formed.
How the session works
The session opens at 8:00 on the ninth day before delivery and closes at 12:00 on the day before. Operators state the quantity and the maximum price at which they are willing to buy or the minimum price at which they are willing to sell. The MGP is an auction market, not a continuous trading market: offers are accepted after closure, in economic merit order and in compliance with the transit limits between zones.
Marginal price and zones
All offers accepted in a zone are valued at the same marginal clearing price, the one resulting from the intersection of the demand and supply curves. If transit limits are not saturated the price is the same everywhere; otherwise the market splits and the importing zone has a higher price than the exporting one. Sellers receive the price of their own zone. Buyers are brought back to the PUN Index GME through a compensation component equal to the difference between the zonal price and the index.
From the hour to the quarter-hour
With the session of 30 September 2025, for delivery on 1 October, the European day-ahead market moved to a 15-minute market time unit. On the Italian MGP, offers can be submitted for 15-, 30- and 60-minute products. Imbalances had already been settled per quarter-hour since 1 January 2025.
European coupling and price limits
The MGP is part of the Single Day-Ahead Coupling: Italian prices are calculated together with those of the other European markets by a common algorithm (Euphemia), which implicitly allocates interconnection capacity on the borders with France, Austria, Slovenia and Greece. Prices converge with foreign ones, except when the available capacity is not sufficient. As of October 2026 the harmonised European limits for the clearing price are +4,000 €/MWh and, since the session of 28 May 2026, −600 €/MWh (previously −500). Negative prices are therefore possible.
The other electricity markets
| Market | Code | What it is for | How it trades |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day-ahead | MGP | Energy for the following day | Auction, closing at 12:00 the day before |
| Intraday | MI | Adjusting the positions defined on the MGP | Three auctions (MI-A) and one continuous session (MI-XBID) |
| Forward | MTE | Monthly, quarterly and yearly base-load and peak-load contracts | Continuous trading |
| Balancing and redispatching | MSD | Resources Terna uses to manage congestion, reserves and balancing | Offers remunerated at the offered price |
For a business: what to look at
- In the contract. An indexed price refers to MGP results. What matters is the level of detail: monthly average, time bands, hour or quarter-hour. The finer the detail, the more the cost depends on when you consume.
- In the invoice. Ask the supplier which measurements the price is calculated on (hourly or quarter-hourly meter curve, or a conventional profile) and keep the load curves: they are needed to check the calculations and to assess alternative offers.
- The decisions it affects. Fixed prices do not come from the MGP but from forward markets: the moment a quotation is requested matters as much as the choice of supplier. Timing and tranches to be fixed are the subject of procurement and energy risk management.
- Typical mistakes. Reading the swings of a single day as a trend; assessing a photovoltaic plant without considering that energy sold on the exchange is valued at the zonal price of the hours in which it is produced; fixing the entire requirement on a single day.
To understand how market results flow into your contract, with an IPGS ENERGY consultant: Request a discussion.
Sources
- GME — Mercato a pronti (MPE) (accessed 10 October 2026)
- GME — Vademecum della borsa elettrica, aggiornamento 31.01.2026 (accessed 10 October 2026)
- GME — SDAC: Market Coupling (accessed 10 October 2026)
- GME — Mercato a termine (MTE) (accessed 10 October 2026)
- GME — Disposizione tecnica di funzionamento n. 11 rev. 01 ME, intervallo di tempo di mercato (accessed 10 October 2026)
- GME — SDAC press release of 12 September 2025 on the go-live of the 15-minute market time unit (accessed 10 October 2026)
- GME — Sintesi MGP, dati annuali (accessed 10 October 2026)
- ACER — Decision 02/2026, Annex I: harmonised maximum and minimum clearing prices for single day-ahead coupling (accessed 10 October 2026)
- NEMO Committee — SDAC communication note of 7 May 2026 on the harmonised minimum clearing price (accessed 10 October 2026)
- ARERA — Relazione 274/2026/I, relazione annuale ad ACER e alla Commissione europea (accessed 10 October 2026)
Informational content by IPGS ENERGY. Information is reviewed as of the stated update date and does not replace a contractual, tax or regulatory assessment specific to an individual business.
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