$/MWh
per megawatt-hour
Cost per energyexact by definition
Cost per megawatt-hour, exactly one thousandth of the cost per kilowatt-hour and 1/3.6e9 of the cost per joule. It is the unit of wholesale electricity: day-ahead and real-time market clearing prices, power purchase agreements and levelised cost of energy comparisons are all quoted in it. The conversion is exact, since the watt and the hour are both exactly defined.
Watch out: Wholesale prices per megawatt-hour and retail tariffs per kilowatt-hour differ by far more than the factor of a thousand between the units. A wholesale price of 40 per MWh is 4 cents per kWh, while the retail bill for the same energy might be three times that once transmission, distribution, capacity and taxes are added.
| 1 $/MWh | 0.001 $/kWh |
Solvers that use cost per energy