Capture Price

Capture price is the average market price actually realized by a generator, weighted by the plant's output profile rather than by time alone. It reflects the fact that a power asset does not produce evenly across all hours, so its realized revenue depends on when and where it generates.

This metric is especially important for variable renewables because their production often coincides with system conditions that systematically influence price. A solar plant, for example, may face lower-than-average prices if many other solar plants are also producing at the same time.

Key Aspects of Capture Price:

• Output-Weighted Revenue Measure: Capture price is based on the prices during the periods when the asset actually produces. It therefore says more about realized market value than a simple annual average price.
• Different from Baseload Price: A market may show a healthy average wholesale price while a specific technology realizes much less because it concentrates output in low-price hours. This distinction is fundamental in revenue modeling.
• Affected by Correlation: When many assets of the same technology generate together, they can depress prices in their own production window. This is why capture price often declines as technology penetration increases.
• Location Also Matters: Congestion and nodal or zonal pricing can cause identical technologies in different places to realize materially different capture prices. Resource quality alone is not enough to assess value.
• Critical for Project Economics: Capture price directly affects merchant revenue, PPA strategy, and storage pairing decisions. It is one of the most important commercial metrics for renewable investment analysis.