SIDC: Confirmation of Go-Live date for SIDC integration of Italy; plans for integration of Greece and Slovakia

The Nominated Electricity Market Operators (NEMOs) and Transmission System Operators (TSOs) of Local Implementation Project (LIP) 14 confirm the go-live date of 21st September for first deliveries on 22nd September. In the meantime, plans for the integration of Greece and Slovakia during 2022 have been devised by SIDC (Single Intraday Coupling)

The NEMOs and TSOs cooperating in LIP 14, which aims to integrate the Northern Italian borders (IT-FR, IT-AT and IT-SI) as well as the Italian internal bidding zones borders into the already coupled intraday region, are pleased to confirm the go-live date of 21st September. This confirmation follows the successful completion of internal testing as well as testing with market participants during the market trial phase performed in a two-week period starting 21st June.

The integration of Italy into the Single Intraday Coupling marks another important milestone towards completing the single integrated European Intraday market.

The second phase of LIP 14, which will integrate the Greek borders (GR-IT and GR-BG) into SIDC, is expected to become operational in the project´s 4th wave go-live. The go-live of the Greek borders is planned later in 2022, subject to successful testing in the period following the integration of Italy. A 4th wave pre-launch event will be planned to brief stakeholders ahead of go-live. A trial period with market parties is also being arranged to provide opportunities for new users to gain familiarity with the SIDC solution and to undertake their own tests.

The integration of two Slovak borders (SK-CZ, SK-HU) as a fifth wave go-live is planned for the end of 2022. The border SK-PL is expected to go-live in Q2 2023.

In addition to these geographical extension initiatives SIDC is currently focusing on research and development in order to prepare the implementation of complex new features such as crossproduct matching and intraday auctions. Cross-product matching will allow the matching of different products with one another (eg. 15 minute with 60 minute products) while the intraday auctions will complement the existing continuous intraday market.

SIDC currently couples the continuous intraday markets of 22 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

About SIDC:

The SIDC solution is based on a common IT system with one Shared Order Book (SOB), a Capacity Management Module (CMM) and a Shipping Module (SM). It allows for orders entered by market participants for continuous matching in one bidding zone to be matched by orders similarly submitted by market participants in any other bidding zone within the project’s reach as long as transmission capacity is available. The intraday solution supports both explicit allocation on the Croatian/Slovenian and French/German borders (as requested by the respective National Regulatory Authorities, NRAs) and implicit continuous trading. It is in line with the EU Target model for an integrated intraday market.

European-wide intraday coupling is a key component for completing the European Internal Energy Market. With the rising share of intermittent generation in the European generation mix, connecting intraday markets through cross-border trading is an increasingly important tool for market parties to keep positions balanced. The purpose of the SIDC initiative is to increase the overall efficiency of intraday trading.