22.3.2018

ACER publishes guidance on capacity hoarding in intraday electricity markets that could constitute market manipulation

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​With the aim of ensuring the integrity of valuable EU cross-border trading capacities, ACER publishes today a guidance note on capacity hoarding in intraday electricity markets that could constitute market manipulation under REMIT (EU Regulation on Wholesale Market Integrity and Transparency). Capacity hoarding consists of the acquisition of available transmission capacity without using it or without using it effectively. 
In Europe, cross-border capacities for electricity in the intraday time frame couple markets and open up opportunities to trade close to real time. If efficiently used, they reduce the need for balancing services and thus contribute to lower network fees, which benefit all consumers.

Currently these capacities represent approximately 27% of the total available*. Due to the growing importance of intermittent generation, intraday cross-border trading is expected to grow further in the coming years.

The Agency is committed to ensuring that available capacities benefit European consumers of electricity. In particular, the guidance note aims to advise National Regulatory Authorities for energy on how to assess the hoarding of valuable transmission capacities under REMIT.

The guidance note on transmission capacity hoarding is available here.

The updated ACER Guidance (4th edition) on the application of REMIT can be found here​.

*Estimated value, based on, intraday offered capacities in the ‘economic’ direction and national intraday volumes for a selection of EU borders in 2016, considering the extrapolation of the results to all the EU borders.