TSOs TenneT and Statnett are the investors of the 700 MW NorNed interconnector linking the Netherlands and Norway. APX-ENDEX has been heavily involved in seeking to develop a market coupling solution to link the Nordic and Dutch day-ahead markets across the NorNed cable, in line with the regulator’s decision in 2004. A temporary explicit auction is now implemented, with the introduction of market coupling intended as soon as possible thereafter.

The main reason for the delay is due to current lack of harmonisation of the exchanges’ gate closure times (i.e. when the markets shut their bidding stage and start calculating the prices), between TLC and Nordic. This would have required a collective move together with the Trilateral Market Coupling partners in Belgium and France. In spite of there being a general consensus around 12.00 CET for European gate closure time, concerns were raised by market parties regarding, amongst others, the change of the Trilateral Market Coupling region’s gate closure at this stage while it remains uncoupled to Germany. This is because the change would reduce the opportunity to arbitrage between the Trilateral Market Coupling countries and Germany, thus creating additional inefficiency.

Once CWE market coupling is implemented all regions will have the same gate closure time. APX-ENDEX is working towards a market coupling solution for NorNed that can be implemented shortly after the start of CWE Market Coupling. This solution is likely to be a volume coupling using the services of EMCC, who currently provide a volume coupling on Nordic-Germany interconnectors.