IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/matcom/v240y2026icp96-104.html

Deep learning-based prediction models for spot electricity market prices in the Spanish market

Author

Listed:
  • Failing, J.M.
  • Segarra-Tamarit, J.
  • Cardo-Miota, J.
  • Beltran, H.

Abstract

This paper explores deep learning-based prediction models for spot electricity market prices in the Spanish market. Electricity prices in deregulated markets, such as the Spanish spot market, exhibit significant volatility. This study highlights the importance of accurately predicting electricity prices to optimize decision-making for trading companies. The focus is on artificial intelligence models, particularly neural networks, due to their ability to capture nonlinear behaviours. The research utilizes extensive data from the Spanish electricity market, including demand forecasts, wind power production, solar generation expectations, gas prices, and more. A correlation analysis reveals that the impact of these variables on electricity prices varies across different years. Several deep learning models, including feedforward, convolutional, and long short-term memory (LSTM) neural networks, are developed with hyperparameter tuning. The best-performing model is a convolutional neural network model, achieving a relative Mean Absolute Error (rMAE) of 13.29%, demonstrating its effectiveness in short-term price prediction. The study also evaluates the impact of individual variables on model performance, underscoring the importance of renewable energy sources and gas prices. The proposed model shows strong potential for accurately predicting spot market prices with a 1-day horizon, providing valuable insights for market participants.

Suggested Citation

  • Failing, J.M. & Segarra-Tamarit, J. & Cardo-Miota, J. & Beltran, H., 2026. "Deep learning-based prediction models for spot electricity market prices in the Spanish market," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 240(C), pages 96-104.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:matcom:v:240:y:2026:i:c:p:96-104
    DOI: 10.1016/j.matcom.2025.07.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378475425002769
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.matcom.2025.07.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chan, Kam Fong & Gray, Philip & van Campen, Bart, 2008. "A new approach to characterizing and forecasting electricity price volatility," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 728-743.
    2. Lago, Jesus & Marcjasz, Grzegorz & De Schutter, Bart & Weron, Rafał, 2021. "Forecasting day-ahead electricity prices: A review of state-of-the-art algorithms, best practices and an open-access benchmark," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    3. Failing, Johanna M. & Cardo-Miota, Javier & Pérez, Emilio & Beltran, Hector & Segarra-Tamarit, Jorge, 2025. "Deep learning approaches for predicting the upward and downward energy prices in the Spanish automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve market," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    4. Karakatsani Nektaria V & Bunn Derek W., 2010. "Fundamental and Behavioural Drivers of Electricity Price Volatility," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 14(4), pages 1-42, September.
    5. Weron, Rafał, 2014. "Electricity price forecasting: A review of the state-of-the-art with a look into the future," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 1030-1081.
    6. Rafal Weron, 2014. "A review of electricity price forecasting: The past, the present and the future," HSC Research Reports HSC/14/02, Hugo Steinhaus Center, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Billé, Anna Gloria & Gianfreda, Angelica & Del Grosso, Filippo & Ravazzolo, Francesco, 2023. "Forecasting electricity prices with expert, linear, and nonlinear models," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 570-586.
    2. Auer, Benjamin R., 2016. "How does Germany's green energy policy affect electricity market volatility? An application of conditional autoregressive range models," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 621-628.
    3. Ehsani, Behdad & Pineau, Pierre-Olivier & Charlin, Laurent, 2024. "Price forecasting in the Ontario electricity market via TriConvGRU hybrid model: Univariate vs. multivariate frameworks," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 359(C).
    4. Joanna Janczura & Andrzej Puć, 2023. "ARX-GARCH Probabilistic Price Forecasts for Diversification of Trade in Electricity Markets—Variance Stabilizing Transformation and Financial Risk-Minimizing Portfolio Allocation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-28, January.
    5. Ciarreta, Aitor & Martinez, Blanca & Nasirov, Shahriyar, 2023. "Forecasting electricity prices using bid data," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1253-1271.
    6. Belenguer, E. & Segarra-Tamarit, J. & Pérez, E. & Vidal-Albalate, R., 2025. "Short-term electricity price forecasting through demand and renewable generation prediction," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 350-361.
    7. Bartosz Uniejewski, 2024. "Regularization for electricity price forecasting," Operations Research and Decisions, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Management, vol. 34(3), pages 267-286.
    8. Caputo, Antonio C. & Federici, Alessandro & Pelagagge, Pacifico M. & Salini, Paolo, 2023. "Offshore wind power system economic evaluation framework under aleatory and epistemic uncertainty," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 350(C).
    9. Thomas Kuppelwieser & David Wozabal, 2023. "Intraday power trading: toward an arms race in weather forecasting?," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 45(1), pages 57-83, March.
    10. Hauzenberger, Niko & Pfarrhofer, Michael & Rossini, Luca, 2025. "Sparse time-varying parameter VECMs with an application to modeling electricity prices," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 361-376.
    11. Castello, Oleksandr & Resta, Marina, 2025. "Univariate and multivariate forecasting of the electricity futures curve using Dynamic Recurrent Neural Networks," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 394(C).
    12. Avci, Ezgi & Ketter, Wolfgang & van Heck, Eric, 2018. "Managing electricity price modeling risk via ensemble forecasting: The case of Turkey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 390-403.
    13. Weronika Nitka & Rafał Weron, 2023. "Combining predictive distributions of electricity prices. Does minimizing the CRPS lead to optimal decisions in day-ahead bidding?," Operations Research and Decisions, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Management, vol. 33(3), pages 105-118.
    14. Ekaterina Abramova & Derek Bunn, 2020. "Forecasting the Intra-Day Spread Densities of Electricity Prices," Papers 2002.10566, arXiv.org.
    15. Yildiz, B. & Bilbao, J.I. & Dore, J. & Sproul, A.B., 2017. "Recent advances in the analysis of residential electricity consumption and applications of smart meter data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 402-427.
    16. Micha{l} Narajewski & Florian Ziel, 2021. "Optimal bidding in hourly and quarter-hourly electricity price auctions: trading large volumes of power with market impact and transaction costs," Papers 2104.14204, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2022.
    17. Daniel Manfre Jaimes & Manuel Zamudio López & Hamidreza Zareipour & Mike Quashie, 2023. "A Hybrid Model for Multi-Day-Ahead Electricity Price Forecasting considering Price Spikes," Forecasting, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-23, July.
    18. Tschora, Léonard & Pierre, Erwan & Plantevit, Marc & Robardet, Céline, 2022. "Electricity price forecasting on the day-ahead market using machine learning," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    19. Huo, Wei & Zhang, Yao & Zhao, Hanting & Lin, Fan & Wang, Jianxue, 2025. "Price signal forecasting for day-ahead offering strategy of price-maker renewable energy producers considering different risk preferences," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 401(PC).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:matcom:v:240:y:2026:i:c:p:96-104. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/mathematics-and-computers-in-simulation/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.