UPDATED: CSE market coupling gate closure time revealed

The gate closing time for the central south Europe market coupling project will be set at 12:00 central European time, a document from the Greek transmission system operator ADMIE revealed on Monday.

Italy, France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and Greece are due to couple their day-ahead markets, with the go-live expected in mid-February 2015.

News on the likely date first emerged at the IBWT market coupling forum in Rome earlier in July ( see EDEM 17 July 2014 ).

Regulatory changes in regards to the gate closing time, where necessary, have been going on for the past six month, the document states.

The central auction office for cross-border transmission capacity CASC will support the project as the fallback operator, publishing the available transmission capacity (ATC) values.

Already coupled, Italy and Slovenia, are said to be technically ready for the project as early as December 2014.

Meanwhile, further concerns surrounded some of the remaining neighbouring countries. It remains unclear when Switzerland will get involved in the project. This is due to an ongoing political discussion between Switzerland and the EU, following restrictions on EU immigration through the interruption of bilateral negotiations on a number of energy related matters in February ( see EDEM 18 February 2014 ).

The Austrian power exchange and shipping agent due to take part in the market coupling are yet to be known.

Delays possible for Greece

In Greece, the agenda of energy reforms is full, with the country planning a sale of ADMIE finalised by the end of the year and the split of the state-owned incumbent the Public Power Corporation.

The energy sector is moving towards the French NOME target model, as well as planning intra-day and forward markets ( see EDEM 29 April 2014 ).

Before the coupling is completed, Greece also needs to launch a power exchange. The market coupling frameworks lists the Greek market operator LAGIE as a power exchange. However, LAGIE currently operates a mandatory pool.

Market participants welcomed the news, but questioned the deadline. “Adding to [the current planned energy reforms], the very strong conflicting interests and the possibility of elections before March 2015, the possibility of market coupling taking place as announced is unlikely,” one trader said.

A second trader added: “I would say mid -2015 would be reasonable to expect some progress on the matter and maybe not the live coupling itself.” The first source expected a one year delay from the announced date.

“Until then there are much more important things to be changed in Greece,” he noted.

The impact on Greek prices following the coupling was difficult to assess, traders said, pointing to the wide range of imminent changes in the country’s energy sector which are already adding uncertainty to prices. Sophie Udubasceanu