SIDC: Successful third wave go-live

Single Intraday Coupling (SIDC) parties confirm successful third wave go-live integrating Italy, which joined SIDC coupling on 21st September. Intraday trading now extended across 23 countries coupled through SIDC. System performing well.

Nominated Electricity Market Operators (NEMOs) and Transmission System Operators (TSOs) involved in the European Single Intraday Coupling (SIDC – formerly known as XBID) are pleased to confirm the successful go-live of the third launch of SIDC. The go-live on 21st September integrated 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.

Cross-border capacity on Italian borders is now allocated, starting from 21st September, both in the continuous trading through SIDC and in three intraday regional auctions (CRIDAs) involving IT-SI and IT-GR borders.

The integration of Italy into the Single Intraday Coupling marks another important milestone towards completing the single integrated European Intraday market. A fourth wave go-live is planned later in 2022, which will integrate the Greek (GR-IT and GR-BG) as well as the Slovak borders (SK-CZ, SK-HU) into SIDC. The SK-PL border 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 cross-product 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 23 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, 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.