Countries of 4M Market Coupling to be connected with Multi Regional Coupling by end of 2020

Interim Coupling project enters implementation phase

Vienna, Berlin, Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, Bucharest, Bratislava

9th December 2019

The Nominated Electricity Market Operators (NEMOs) and Transmission System Operators (TSOs) from Austria, Germany, Poland and the 4M Market Coupling (4M MC) countries, namely the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, announce the connection of 4M MC with the Multi Regional Coupling (MRC) foreseen in Q3 2020. The DE-AT-PL-4M MC Project, also referred to as Interim Coupling project, has completed the design phase and now enters its implementation phase.

The project aims to connect the borders of 4M MC with the Europe-wide MRC by introducing NTC-based implicit capacity allocation on six borders (PL-DE, PL-CZ, PL-SK, CZ-DE, CZ-AT, HU-AT). This will establish a connection of these 4M MC countries with MRC, establishing a Single Day-Ahead Coupling across 23 European countries.

On 6th November 2019, National Regulatory Authorities welcomed the progress made and reconfirmed their support for the project implementation. They approve of the synergies emerging from the Interim Coupling project, which will facilitate the move towards the introduction of Flow Based Market Coupling in the Core* region, which is ultimately the target model.

*The Core capacity calculation region consist of the borders between the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.