Powering Europe - European Wind Energy Association

WINDpOWerINtheeUrOpeaNINterNal
electrIcItymarket
4.1 Current market rules in EU
Member States
There is a high degree of diversity in the adequacy of
market characteristics for wind power across the EU.
Some observations are given here based on an analysis
in [TradeWind, 2009]:
• Most countries in the EU, with the exception of Slovenia
and Malta, have liberalised their power markets.
Switzerland, Greece and Hungary are on the
way to liberalisation.
• Functioning day-ahead power markets exist in most
countries, although some have low liquidity. In terms
of trading on the spot market, high shares are only
observed in the Nordic countries and Spain. In
Spain, the volume traded on the day-ahead market
is up to 90% of energy consumption. On the Nordic
day-ahead market, the volume traded in 2009
126
represented about 72% of overall consumption. On
the other day-ahead markets this share was mostly
well below 20%.
• Intraday markets exist in several countries (including
France, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands,
Spain, and the Nordic countries), but in most cases
these markets are young and suffer from very low liquidity.
These markets are used for final fine-tuning
of portfolios shortly before delivery. Therefore, the
volumes traded on these markets are much lower
than on the day-ahead markets, typically, a few percent
of consumption.
• The overall organisation of balancing markets is fairly
similar in many countries; nevertheless significant
differences do exist on a more detailed level. On the
other hand, cross-border balancing markets do not
yet exist.
Powering Europe: wind energy and the electricity grid
Photo: Siemens