Elering and Latvian transmission system operator start auctioning capacity

http://www.elering.ee/index.php?id=607, http://www.elering.ee/index.php?id=608 Elering is the Estonian transmission system operator, that unites Estonia’s biggest power stations, distribution networks and corporate consumers into an integrated energy system. The deficit in transmission capacity is expected to occur in the cross-section between Estonia, Latvia and Russia because of planned repairs on the 330 kW transmission grid between Latvia and Russia from 24 May – 3 June. In order to guarantee equal opportunities to all market participants interested in buying capacity for the given time period, a set of rules to share transmission capacity and combat congestion and deficits and auctioning principles have been agreed to between Estonian and Latvian national system operators. The first auction will take place on 18 May and the capacities will be published for bids on Friday, 14 May. Up to now, inter-network capacity management has not been a practical necessity, as there has always been enough capacity. The Baltic national system operators started negotiations over cross-border transmission capacity sharing under market principles already in the last months of 2009. All parties were of the opinion that congestions are expected to form already this year and first and foremost between Estonia and Latvia. Since then a respective memorandum of understanding on the capacity allocation mechanism has been signed. According to the memorandum, 20% of the capacity released to the market will be shared on a weekly basis, using the explicit auction method. The rest (at least 80%) will be made available to the Nord Pool Spot (NPS) Estlink bidding area market participants. This part of the capacity will be auctioned by NPS within its own system, in accordance with bid/offers and price. All of the information on the auctions, including time-tables, rules, pre-registrationa and other related info is available via Elering’s website at