Another important step towards convergence with the single European electricity market took place at the end of 2022, with IPTO joining the European Single Intraday Coupling (SIDC) market.
The single European intraday market has now integrated the borders of Greece (Greece-Italy, Greece-Bulgaria) and Slovakia (Slovakia-Czech Republic, Slovakia-Hungary, Slovakia-Poland), on which cross-border electricity transmission capacity is allocated in the continuous trading through the SIDC.
In the SIDC, trading takes place on a 24-hour basis through a continuous trading mechanism in which buy and sell orders are matched from all the European connected bidding zones, while the required capacity is allocated to the cross-zone interconnections. The XBID Project, in the context of which the required common software infrastructures were developed with the coupled markets, was launched to implement this coupling.
The SIDC will increase the efficiency and flexibility of the intraday market and enhance its liquidity, as it provides Greek electricity market participants with additional position correction tools very close to the actual delivery time (up to one hour in advance), thereby facilitating further penetration of RES into the energy mix.
The inclusion of Greece and Slovakia into the SIDC marks the full integration of the single European intraday market, which spans a total of 25 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
The Chief Officer of IPTO’ s General Division of Operation, Infrastructure and Market Mr. Dimitrios Michos, said in this regard: “The integration of the Greek into the single European intraday electricity market proves the magnitude of the steps that have been taken since the launch of the Target Model two years ago. Continuous Intraday Trading in our country started with very positive prospects and is a useful tool for participants, especially those with RES portfolios, who are now able to trade on a continuous basis and very close to the delivery time, through the coupled intraday markets. The successful participation of the Greek bidding zone is the result of the collective effort of the System Operators IPTO, TERNA and ESO, as well as the Market Operators Energy Exchange Group, GME and IBEX of Greece, Italy and Bulgaria respectively, whom we thank for their valuable cooperation”.
