Electricity exchange: quarter-hourly cycle shifts significantly
It had already become apparent that the switch to the quarter-hourly cycle on the electricity exchange in June was not going to happen.
Electricity pylons in Bremen
(Image: heise online / anw)
There are plans to switch from an hourly to a quarter-hourly cycle on the single-day-ahead exchange for electricity trading. The changeover was last scheduled for June 11, 2025. Today, Wednesday, the Market Coupling Steering Committee decided to postpone the changeover in live operation until September 30, 2025.
In a statement, the Nominated Electricity Market Operators (NEMOs) and Transmission System Operators (TSOs) discuss that the tests with the interconnected systems and procedural tests on the technical side were successful and ready for the planned live operation on June 11. "However, due to the non-technical readiness of some parties, the project parties announce the postponement of the commissioning of the 15-minute MTU (Market Time Unit) project in SDAC [single-day-ahead trading, editor's note] to September 30, 2025 (first trading day) with a delivery date of October 1, 2025. Alternative scenarios for commissioning (including technical feasibility) have been examined, but the implementation schedule cannot be met," the exchange operators write in explanation.
Updated plans to follow
Detailed plans are now to be presented at the upcoming meetings of the Market Coupling Consultation Group (MCCG) and the Market Stakeholder Committee (MESC) on June 2 and July 3, 2025 respectively. Meanwhile, the tests for the quarter-hourly cycle are continuing in preparation for the participants. The NEMOs are encouraging other market participants to take part in the tests and familiarize themselves with the simulated scenarios to ensure that they are prepared for the changeover.
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At the end of April, the provider of dynamic electricity tariffs, Tibber, also announced the changeover for the company's customers. The infrastructure and the app are already technically prepared. But there were already signs of a possible postponement.
Epex had already announced that "Epex Spot considers the internal and external test to be far below standard, with far too many errors that would lead to serious operational problems in productive use". It therefore announced its intention to vote against going live from June 11. "We should consider a reasonable date for live operation, from 1 October 2025, as was initially requested by market participants," the organization continued. The other market participants have now followed this request.
(dmk)
