The full coupling of the South-Western Europe (SWE) day-ahead market is scheduled to be launched on 13 May 2014. As a result, day-ahead markets of North-Western Europe (NWE) and SWE, projects stretching from Portugal to Finland, will be fully coupled. The achievement of the SWE full coupling is proof of the flexibility and reliability of the Price Coupling of Regions (PCR) solution.
The NWE day-ahead price coupling was launched on 4 February. Simultaneously common synchronised operations of the NWE and the SWE day-ahead price coupling started. Since then, the day-ahead markets covered by these two projects have successfully been operated using the PCR model, developed by European Power Exchanges. Prices and transfers of energy are determined in a single calculation based on common order books and available cross-border capacities.
Over this period, no capacity was offered to the price coupling at the French-Spanish border and the daily explicit auctions on this border were maintained. With the launch of SWE full price coupling on 13 May 2014, capacity for the French-Spanish border will be implicitly allocated through PCR in the day-ahead markets and the existing daily explicit auctions on this border will cease. The go-live is subject to the final approval by the involved regulatory authorities as well as the successful completion of the member tests.
Full price coupling between the NWE and SWE projects based on the PCR solution, achieved with the collaboration of Transmission System Operators, is a significant step towards a fully harmonised European day-ahead electricity market. This allows cross-border infrastructures to be used more efficiently and to further increase market liquidity and social welfare.
The combined day-ahead markets of the NWE and SWE projects cover 17 European countries[1], accounting for about 2,400 TWh of yearly consumption. Since 4 February, the daily average cleared volume over these countries amounted to 3.2 TWh, with an average daily value of over €200m.
[1]Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland (via the SwePol Link), Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
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EPEX SPOT SE: Launch Of Full SWE Coupling On 13 May 2014 - A Significant Step Towards An Integrated European Power Market
Date 24/04/2014