Quarter-hourly cycle started at electricity exchange

On 30 September this year, the time had come: single-day-ahead trading on the electricity exchanges was switched to quarter-hourly intervals. After some back and forth with an initially hoped-for earlier start back in June, the exchange operators (Nominated Electricity Market Operators, NEMOs) have thus fine-tuned electricity pricing, which allows for more flexible consumption planning.

The NEMOs have now announced the completion of the changeover. “In accordance with the agreed go-live process, the project participants will monitor the stability and robustness of the systems in detail over the coming days of operation. Market participants will be informed immediately of any relevant developments,” writes the merger.

Electricity providers with dynamic tariffs, such as Tibber, announced back in April that they would support the quarter-hourly cycle. End customers will thus immediately benefit from the higher temporal resolution.

Renewable energies have an impact

Meanwhile, interesting developments can be seen in renewable energies. For example, the entire electricity load in Germany was covered by renewable energy sources from 7.45 pm on Saturday until 5.15 pm on Sunday.

This also had an impact on the price of electricity. On the weekend, electricity was often free or had a negative price tag.

The expansion of photovoltaics and wind power is contributing to the favorable electricity prices. Germany has now also reached interesting milestones in this area. According to the Market Master Data Register (MaStR), 10 gigawatts of net photovoltaic capacity have already been installed so far this year – even a little more, as system operators have four weeks to register. Wind power, on the other hand, is growing more slowly, but the MaStR has also recorded more than 3 gigawatts of newly installed plant capacity this year.

(dmk)