ACER amended its Decision on the long-term capacity calculation methodology of the Core region
ACER amended its Decision on the long-term capacity calculation methodology of the Core region
What is it about?
Following the Board of Appeal’s Decision of 7 July 2022, ACER has amended its previous Decision No 14/2021 of 3 November 2021 on the long-term capacity calculation methodology of the Core capacity calculation region.
In the amendment of the methodology, ACER has reached a consensus with regional regulatory authorities and Transmission System Operators (TSOs) on the improved provisions related to the validation process of calculated capacities.
What is the methodology about?
Long‐term cross-border capacity calculation promotes effective long‐term cross‐zonal trade. It allows for long‐term planning and provides hedging opportunities by calculating reliable capacities and making them available to market participants at an early stage.
The long-term capacity calculation methodology of the Core region covers yearly and monthly capacity calculation processes by applying the flow-based approach, which is compatible with the day-ahead capacity calculation methodology applied since June 2022.
The Core region comprises of 13 countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
What are the main amendments of the methodology?
Article 17 of the Proposal describes the capacity validation process performed by the Core TSOs and the Coordinated Capacity Calculator.
ACER amended Article 17 by listing the situations in which a TSO may change the long-term capacity on their own critical network elements with contingencies (CNECs) during the validation process.
The list mentions all situations possibly requiring a correction of the long-term capacity for reasons of operational security during the validation stage. ACER has introduced additional paragraphs of Article 17 in order:
- To cover exceptional topologies from the outage planning coordination process, not modelled through the reference timestamps and common grid models (CGMs);
- To list the situations and operational security limits which the flow-based approach is unable to capture. While thermal limits can be modelled with the flow-based approach, voltage limits, short-circuit current limits, frequency and dynamic stability limits might not be;
- To explicitly cover the situations where the operational security limits could be modelled with the input data for the flow-based approach, but they would be overwritten by the application of the minimum RAM; and
- To introduce changes to the reporting obligations for all listed validation situations.
What are the next steps?
The Core long-term capacity calculation methodology is planned to be implemented by the end of 2024.
Access the ACER’s Decision 03-2023 and its Annex I, Annex Ia and Annex II.