Effects of regulating the European Internal Market on the integration of variable renewable energy

Abstract

The new proposal for regulating the European Internal Market for Electricity (EIME) can motivate the harmonization of the various National markets. The process of harmonizing the day-ahead markets (DAMs) is at an advanced stage, with an efficiency in the use of interconnectors of 86%. However, the harmonization of both intraday (IDMs) and balancing markets (BMs) is still in its infancy, with an efficiency in the use of interconnectors of 50 and 19%, respectively. The new proposal brings new targets to DAMs, and European countries should make efforts to comply with them. The same is true for IDMs and BMs, but involving more ambitious targets, requiring higher efforts to be accomplished. Both the analysis of the various National markets (according to their compliance with the new proposal for regulating the EIME) and the advantages of the new proposal for key market participants (particularly, consumers, variable renewable generation, and conventional generation) are presented. The analysis indicates that the proposal contributes to a potential increase of the general welfare of market participants. However, some aspects of the proposal can negatively affect the revenue obtained from the National markets, notably for variable renewable generation and conventional generation.

Changing the Day-Ahead Gate Closure to Wind Power Integration: A Simulation-Based Study

“…Article 7 considers that market operators should trade as close as possible to real-time operation, and no later than the gate closure of the intraday cross-zonal market. In [13], we presented an overview of the potential effects of the new EU proposal on the integration of renewable generation. In [14][15][16], we analyzed the impact of both high levels of renewable generation and significant forecast errors on the outcomes of the DAM.…”

Variable Renewable Energy and Market Design: New Products and a Real-World Study

“…It must be activated up to 15 s and the disturbances need to be controlled in 30 s. Secondary reserve should be fully activated in 30 s and can continue active for a maximum of 15 min. Tertiary reserve is activated manually, up to 15 min, and can continue active for hours (see, e.g., [8]).…”

“…This near real-time negotiation is also supported by the Clean Energy Package (Article 7), published by the European Commission [7]. In this package, a new proposal for regulating the Internal Market for Electricity is presented, with the main goals of stimulating the global leadership of Europe in renewables, harmonizing markets rules, supporting the integration of VRE, and increasing the general welfare of consumers (see [8] for a complete overview). Article 6 of the new proposal indicates that market operators should develop new products to accommodate the increasing levels of VRE and support demand-response programs.…”

The Role of Local Citizen Energy Communities in the Road to Carbon-Neutral Power Systems: Outcomes from a Case Study in Portugal

“…Intraday and real-time markets have close to real-time gate closures, but they are used only to cover the short-run deviation of previous trades, so they have few liquidities. To guarantee the security of supply, fast responsive dispatchable power plants can also support the ancillary services, responsible for maintaining the balance between demand and supply using the balancing markets, guaranteeing the frequency and voltage stability along the electrical grid [4,5].…”