Baltic TSOs Launch a Public Consultation on the Baltic Balancing Market Elements

On June 27, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian electricity transmission system operators (TSO) Elering, Augstsprieguma tīkls and Litgrid launch the first set of documents for a public consultation on the common balancing market model in the Baltic countries. The Baltic electricity markets stakeholders are encouraged to comment on a proposed harmonised Baltic imbalance settlement model and a standard product of the manual frequency restoration reserves for the balancing energy exchange.

Balancing is an organized process that ensures balance in real time between electricity consumption and production in the electricity system. The goal of the Baltic balancing market is to facilitate the competition among market participants and contribute to their equal treatment regardless the country they operate. The same market rules and practices in all three countries will also create more efficient regulatory environment which will ultimately lead to decreasing balancing costs and higher consumer welfare.

The public consultations will continue until 15 August, 2016. Three Baltic TSOs will review and consider received comments which will serve as the base for development of the further rules for the common Baltic balancing market.

The new balancing market model is based on the forthcoming European Union guidelines on the electricity balancing energy and will take effect from January 1, 2018. The harmonisation of the Baltic balancing market rules and practices is implemented in small steps. All three countries have already reduced the cost of balancing by starting to aggregate the imbalances of the energy systems together in 2015. The Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan foresees further Baltics integration with Nordic balancing market.

The public consultation documents can be found here.