Glossary

Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators. ACER helps ensure the single European market in gas and electricity functions properly. It assists national regulatory authorities in performing their regulatory function at European level and, where necessary, coordinates their work. https://www.acer.europa.eu/en

Are included in the aggregated curves hourly orders, executed blocks, the coupling volume, the last two elements being considered at any price.

Limit orders that are executed for the entire quantity only and remain in the Order Book until they are filled.

The period for amicable settlement, in accordance with article 11.2 of the MCFA, of disputes arising under or in connection with the MCFA, which shall not exceed two (2) months (or any other period as agreed upon between the Parties).

Legal entity having submitted a Membership application to EPEX SPOT SE.

Price of a sell order.

Procedure for making transactions after a period of time during which the orders entered by exchange members in the order book are accumulated but not executed. The price determination algorithm aims at optimising the total welfare, i.e. the seller surplus, the buyer surplus and the congestion rent (if applicable).

Company managing interconnection capacity on behalf of one or several TSOs.

Available Interconnection Capacity means ATC for ATC Based Market Coupling and remaining margin on critical branches for flow-based Market Coupling.

Part of the day-ahead NTC (i.e. the maximum cross border exchanges between hubs compatible with security standards applicable in both hubs and taking into account the technical uncertainties on future network conditions) made available in accordance with the Agreement concluded between all the parties involved in the concerned Market Coupling for Coupled Markets. For the avoidance of doubt, ATC are also equal to the maximum amount of PTRs.

All contractual agreements between the transmission system operator and the grid user regarding the settlement of power imbalances recorded on balance perimeters.

Legal entity obligated to pay a TSO for the after-the-fact Imbalances of a grid-user coming within the Balance Responsible’s Perimeter.

Energy account which the transmission system operator keeps for every user of the system. This system is in accordance with a balance area agreement. In the account feeding, withdrawals and the transfer of energy to other balance areas (schedule) are booked in order to establish the deviation in the energy balance of every user.

Market managed by TSOs in order to guarantee the availability of power reserves in D-1 and Intraday to ensure global supply-demand balance in real time.

Characterises the type of load for the delivery of electricity or the procurement of electricity with a constant output over 24 hours of each day of the delivery period.

Electronic document by which the Exchange Member submits the Price and the quantity for which it seeks to make a Transaction in a Contract.

Price of a buying order.

Combination of single hours which depend on each other for their execution. On the auction, all block orders can only be either executed fully, or rejected fully.

The Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office) is an independent competition authority whose task is to protect competition in Germany.

The Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency) is a German authority whose task is to provide, by liberalisation and deregulation, for the further development of networks and markets as is the case of electricity. The Agency has rights of information and investigation as well as the right to impose graded sanctions.

Difference between the submitted price and the market price, multiplied by the quantity actually purchased.

Region encompassing the power spot markets of France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg, which are coupled since 9 November 2010.

Financial and physical settlement of transactions.

Document issued by ECC, describing the settlement and collateralisation of transactions. Clearing conditions are binding for all Clearing Members and Non-Clearing Members.

An institution which acts as a central counterparty for transactions (CCP). The clearing house organises the accounting of receivables and liabilities, the delivery and the collateralisation of the transactions.

Participant in the clearing procedure endowed with a clearing license.

The Code of Conduct sets forth the rules of conduct and market behaviour which must be respected at all times by the Exchange Members.

Independent administrative body in charge of regulating the French electricity and gas markets.

Price difference between two markets linked by market coupling arising when there is congestion on the border.

Unlike in an auction, orders may be executed as soon as they are placed in the order book. Competing orders in the order book are prioritised firstly by their price and then by their time stamp.

Commercial contracts traded on EPEX SPOT, which specifications and parameters are described in the Operational Rules.

Price or Volume Coupled Markets.

A Transaction where an Exchange Member is both on the buy and the sell side for the same product.

Imbalance of purchase and sale leading to extreme prices on the Auction Segment.

Forsyningstilsynet - Regulates the utility sector in Denmark. The Danish Utility Regulator’s purpose is securing consumer interests in the utility sectors by striving for a higher level of efficiency, the lowest possible costs in the short and long term, a stable and secure supply, and a cost-effective development in technology and climate-friendly initiatives.

Part of the spot market where a commodity is tradable one day before delivery.

The physical fulfillment of transactions is called delivery.

Power transportation grid managed by a TSO.

Day on which the Contracts negotiated on EPEX SPOT area to be delivered.

Type of Trading Member which trades on behalf of another Trading Member.

As the Austrian independent regulation authority, E-Control is responsible for drawing up and enforcing market rules. Its job is to strengthen competition and to ensure that this does not compromise security of supply and sustainability.

European Commodity Clearing AG. Central counterparty for all transactions effected on EPEX SPOT.

ElCom is Switzerland’s independent regulatory authority in the electricity sector. ElCom monitors electricity prices as well as electricity supply security and regulates issues relating to international electricity transmission and trading.

European Electricity Index. ELIX is calculated daily, based on the order books of the three EPEX SPOT markets – which account for 40% of the European power consumption – under the assumption of no congestions between the countries.

European Market Coupling Company GmbH with registered offices in Hamburg. Auction Office for the Volume Coupling between Denmark and Germany.

The Finnish Energy Authority. It regulates and promotes the operation of the electricity and gas markets, emission reductions, energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy.

The Swedish Energy Markets Inspectorate (Ei) is an authority which is commissioned to strive for well-functioning energy markets.

Electronic system operated by EPEX SPOT that allows exchange members to trade on EPEX SPOT Market Segments. The EPEX Trading System is used for auction trading on the Day-Ahead and Intraday markets.

Electronic platform on which the Contracts tradable on EPEX SPOT can be negotiated.

One of the Exchange Bodies of EPEX SPOT, as described in the Exchange Rules.

Legal entity that has signed a Trading Agreement with EPEX SPOT SE.

Part of the Rules and Regulations of EPEX SPOT that sets forth the terms on which EPEX SPOT SE carries out its duties and on which Exchange Members trade in the market.

Person authorised to trade in the name of an Exchange Member.

Delivery period of a contract. Depending on the specifications, its duration can be individual hour or 15 minutes.

Trading participants active on both EEX and EPEX SPOT markets can enter bids in the corresponding Day-Ahead auction according to the participants' respective position in an EEX power futures contract. The creation and forwarding of the required bidding sheets can be done automatically by EEX or manually via the Trading Participant.

Standardized contract between two parties to buy or sell a specified asset of standardized quantity and quality at a specified future date at a price agreed today.

Legal conditions under which EPEX SPOT SE provides its services to the Exchange Members.

Any extraordinary event or any extraordinary change of circumstances that is (i) independent of the will of the affected Party(ies); (ii) beyond the control of the affected Party(ies); (iii) unforeseeable at the time of conclusion of the concerned agreement, and (iv) which fundamentally and negatively affects for a substantial period of time, for the concerned Party(ies), the initial contractual equilibrium of the concerned agreement.

Buy or sell order which is specified by means of its limit, total quantity and peak quantity. The Iceberg Order is placed in the order book in partial orders to the amount of the peak quantity. As soon as a partial order has been executed, a new partial order to the amount of the peak quantity is placed in the order book. This process is repeated until the total quantity of the Iceberg Order is executed.

Difference, within the Perimeter of the Balance Responsible, between the total quantities of power injected and the total power quantities withdrawn, including all quantities resulting from Transactions made on EPEX SPOT.

Balance responsible parties are held financially liable ex post of any imbalance registered within their balance perimeter.

An auction is called implicit, if market price calculation and cross-border capacities are calculated simultaneously. If cross-border capacities are determinated separately by the TSOs, it is called explicit.

Cash or securities which the Clearing Member has to deposit with the clearing house and which the Non-Clearing Member has to deposit with its Clearing Member. The initial margin covers the intra-day risk from spot market transactions on power.

Power produced or declared to the TSO and included as a positive figure in the calculation of the Balance Responsible Imbalance.

Cross-border electric energy transfer capacity on the interconnections.

Additional margin which has to be deposited in the course of an exchange trading day in highly volatile market situations.

Part of the spot market where the commodity is tradable up to 30 minutes before physical fulfilment.

Buy or sell order which is entered with a position limit; it is executed at this limit or at a better limit.

Electronic system operated by EPEX SPOT that allows exchange members to trade on EPEX SPOT Market Segments. M7 is used for the Intraday continuous market.

An area comprising one or several Delivery Areas.

Synonym for auction price. The market clearing price corresponds to the intersection between the aggregated supply and demand curve.

Market coupling allows the matching of power exchanges orders and the implicit allocation of the available cross-border capacities received from the Transmission System Operators (TSOs).

Market Coupling Contracts are listed for the purpose of Price Coupling. The commodity underlying the Market Coupling Contracts is the Physical Transmission Right (PTR). The PTR is delivered under the form of specified PTRs which correspond to the specification of the executed PTRs on each electrical border by the Market Coupling Facilitator.

The entity signing the Market Coupling Facilitator Agreement.

The agreement to be signed by EPEX SPOT SE, and the Market Coupling Facilitator.

Document issued by EPEX SPOT to communicate with Exchange Members.

Independent Exchange Body, as described in the Exchange Rules.

Combination of two compatible opposite orders that leads to a Transaction.

Abbreviation for market clearing price.

Abbreviation for market clearing volume.

A transaction which was effected as a result of a mistake.

Daily declaration of power supply, of purchase and sale or of imports and exports made to the TSO by the Balance Responsible Party. Physical delivery of transactions is fulfilled by means of reporting schedules/nominations to the TSO.

Exchange member which has concluded a “NCM agreement” with a clearing member and is approved as a trading participant by ECC.

The Nordic countries encompass Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate is a directorate under the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy of Norway.

Part of the Rules and Regulations of EPEX SPOT that sets forth the Contracts details and trading parameters, General Services Conditions, Price List and Technical Access Rules.

Shortcut for Transmission System Operator, operating the power transportation grid of a given Delivery Area.

Electronic document by which the Exchange Member submits the Price and the quantity for which it seeks to make a Transaction in a Contract.

Centralisation by the Trading System of buy and sell Orders and ranking based on the execution priority determined by the matching algorithm.

Abbreviation for "Over-The-Counter". An OTC contract is a bilateral contract in which two parties agree on how a particular trade or agreement is to be settled in the future.

Service offered by exchanges. OTC transactions which correspond in their contract specification to exchange transactions can be registered. In this case clearing and settlement of the OTC transactions will be done by the respective clearing house.

A group of one or several Delivery Areas belonging to a Market Area.

Obligation to pay resulting from a Transaction on EPEX SPOT.

Characterizes the load type for the delivery or procurement of electricity at a constant load over 12 hours from 08:00 am until 08:00 pm on every working day (Monday to Friday) during a delivery period.

Physical Electricity Index. Calculated on a daily basis by EPEX SPOT, the Phelix is the average price for base load (Phelix Day Base) and peak load (Phelix Day Peak) electricity traded on the German/Austrian Auction.

A contract whose underlying is the electrical power transiting over a Transmission System managed by a TSO, which defines the voltage, frequency, cosine φ (displacement factor) and cut-off frequencies, in compliance with the contractual obligations of the prevailing concession agreement for the general power grid. The delivery of such contract happens at any Injection or Withdrawal point on the relevant Transmission System.

The right under ATC based Market Coupling to use a specified quantity of the Available Interconnection Capacity in the export direction, expressed in MW for each hourly period of a given day. In the framework of ATC based Market Coupling, the PTR is granted to ECC through the execution of Market Coupling Contracts. For the avoidance of doubt, the PTRs are inferior or equal to the Available Transfer Capacity under the ATC Market Coupling.

Very high voltage grid managed by a TSO.

Transactions which shall be concluded according to a prior arrangement between two Exchange Members by entering consecutive Orders with opposite limits in continuous trading which are executed against each other.

Exchanges operating Price Coupling in coordination with EPEX SPOT.

Price coupling between different countries allows creating a single exchange zone – and consequently single price zones when interconnection capacities do not limit cross-border power exchanges. It contributes to improve the market liquidity and participates in the creation of a single European electricity market.

Orders to be executed whatever the market price.

Set of fees payable by Exchange Members upon trading on EPEX SPOT, as described in the Operational Rules.

Regulation on Energy Market Integrity and Transparency. It is a proposal by the EU Commission of a harmonised EU-wide regulation of energy markets.

The resiliency prices are calculated by adding a specific quantity of purchase/sale order to the order book of the day-ahead auction markets.

Set of documents issued by EPEX SPOT SE, comprising the Trading Agreement or the Market Coupling Facilitator Agreement (for Market Coupling Facilitator only), the Exchange Rules, the Operational Rules and the Code of Conduct and governing the organisation of EPEX SPOT.

Daily declaration of power supply, of purchase and sale or of imports and exports made to the TSO by the Balance Responsible Party. Physical delivery of transactions is fulfilled by means of reporting schedules/nominations to the TSO.

Describes the modality of trading in the sense of closed or open Auction, Intraday trading and Continuous Trading for each Market Area.

Difference between the submitted price and the market price, multiplied by the quantity actually sold.

Payment of Transactions executed on EPEX SPOT and handled by the Clearing House.

Order relating to a contract with one Expiry.

Market on which transactions regarding products are concluded and/or registered which are settled within a period of two settlement days. Settlement can take place immediately (Intraday), the following day (Day-Ahead) or two days ahead.

The price range between best bid and best ask is called spread.

Rules pertaining to the configuration and installation of Trading Systems.

The “Traitement du renseignement et action contre les circuits financiers clandestins”, TRACFIN, is a service of the French Ministry of Finances. It fights money laundering.

Outcome of the matching of buy and sell orders.

Examination leading to the qualification as an Exchange Trader on EPEX SPOT.

Username and password giving access to the Trading Systems.

Contract between the Exchange Member and EPEX SPOT SE whereby the Exchange Members accepts to comply with the Rules and Regulations of EPEX SPOT SE.

Category of Exchange Member described in the Exchange Rules which is authorised to trade on EPEX SPOT.

An external entity, which has to take part in the optimisation of cross-border trading in power between separate power markets (Volume Coupling).

Company which is approved as a Trading Participant according to the ECC Clearing Conditions.

Auction Trading or Continuous Trading.

Electronic system operated by EPEX SPOT SE that allows Exchange Members to trade on EPEX SPOT Market Segments.

Contract agreed on EPEX SPOT for which the procedures and specifications are defined in the Rules and Regulations.

Entity in charge of operating the power transportation grid of a given delivery area.

Volatility is a measure of the price fluctuations in the course of one day. The additional margin parameter and the spread margin parameter can then be determined on the basis of volatility.

Exchanges operating Volume Coupling in coordination with EPEX SPOT.

Coordinated day-ahead Auction involving two or more power markets. Cross-border volumes computed by an Auction Office are transferred to the exchanges which consider them as price acceptant bids into their local system. The exchanges thus locally calculate their prices on their own in a second step.

Power consumed or declared to the TSO and included as a negative figure in the calculation of the Balance Responsible Imbalance.