Why Energy Prices Change Every 5 Minutes

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Most commodities have prices that update daily, or even weekly. Energy prices, specifically electricity, update every 5 minutes, and some markets every 30 seconds. Electricity cannot be stored at scale. The moment it's generated, [music] it has to go somewhere. The moment you consume it, something has to be generating it. The grid is a live balancing act happening [music] continuously, and price is the sign that keeps it in balance. When demand spikes, a heat wave hits, [music] factories come online, or everyone plugs in their EVs at 6:00 p.m. all at the same time, supply hasn't caught up yet, and prices jump.

[00:00:35]Sometimes dramatically. [music] In Texas in February 2021, the wholesale electricity prices hit $9,000 [music] per megawatt hour.

[00:00:44]A normal price is around $30.

[00:00:47]When supply exceeds demand, [music] like a windy night when turbines are running but consumption is low, prices can go negative. Generators literally pay customers [music] to take electricity off the grid because shutting down a power plant and restarting it costs more than giving the power away.

[00:01:04]Negative prices aren't a sign of a broken market. They're a sign of a market without adequate flexibility and not enough storage or [music] demand to shift in real time. This is where Bitcoin mining enters the picture in a way no other industry does. A mining operation can power down in seconds.

[00:01:19][music] It can absorb surplus electricity when prices crater and curtail when prices [music] spike.

[00:01:25]This is an unusual capability and has real value to grid operators trying to manage [music] a system that has to balance every moment of every day.

[00:01:34]Price volatility in energy isn't noise.

[00:01:36]It's information, and the ability to respond to it is worth something.