Day-ahead missing as Greek electricity TSO declares force majeure

The Greek wholesale electricity market was left in chaos as transmission system operator ADMIE declared force majeure on its activities because of a strike by its staff, according to an email seen by ICIS, making it unlikely a day-ahead price for Wednesday would be published.

The email said all cross-border activities were suspended for Wednesday’s delivery as a result of the strike. In the morning, the market operator LAGIE warned in an email sent to participants, also seen by ICIS, it lacked crucial information required to run the algorithm for calculating the day-ahead price, known as the system marginal price (SMP). LAGIE then declared an emergency situation in another email, which was then followed by the email from ADMIE declaring a state of force majeure.

Uncertainty lingers in the market, as some participants polled by ICIS remain unaware of what the outcome of Tuesday’s events will be, especially how or who will calculate the SMP for Wednesday’s delivery.

“With the TSO on strike, there is a lot going on today, but not much is clear,” one trader said.

Missing data

Sources told ICIS that ADMIE employees were protesting against the proposed privatisation of the country’s TSO. “A draft law was presented to parliament today [on Tuesday] and it is what sparked their reaction,” a trader said.

It is thought the strike will run from Tuesday until Wednesday, affecting “all procedures relative to cross-border trade”, the TSO’s email states.

The data usually submitted to calculate the system price includes the load forecast, renewable generation forecast, unit availability, import and export flows and daily available transmission capacity. In one of its emails, LAGIE noted it had extended the deadline to 12:30 Athens time and said that participants should submit offers as usual despite the current situation.

But the market operator said that since the TSO did not supply the required data an emergency situation was declared.

A third source said: “According to the regulation, LAGIE must try to run the [day-ahead market] DAM algorithm. However, because of the lack of vital data this might be impossible.”

“The last time this happened, no SMP was published for the day ,” he added.

According to other participants, the current situation will force the energy regulator RAE to intervene and calculate the price for Wednesday, although this could not be confirmed with the watchdog by Tuesday evening. Sophie Udubasceanu