On September 11, 2023, the USAID Energy Security Project (ESP) and EPEX SPOT teams conducted the first workshop within the Roadmap and Capacity Building on Electricity Market Coupling Activity, gathering more than 80 participants from Ukraine’s energy sector and international institutions implementing Ukraine’s electricity market reforms.
The Electricity Market Coupling Activity aims to help the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC), NPC Ukrenergo (Electricity Transmission System Operator), Market Operator, and the Ukrainian Energy Exchange to implement the market coupling process. The representatives of these organizations attended this first workshop, the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine and the Energy Community Secretariat.
Opening the meeting, Fatih Kolmek, USAID ESP Senior Electricity Manager, said, “The scope of this activity is complementing USAID ESP’s efforts to facilitate the coupling of Ukraine’s energy market with the European and Moldova markets. It is not limited to the day-ahead or intra-day market coupling that the Market Operator operates. We are also working on the balancing power market operated by Ukrenergo – Transmission System Operator. The planned five workshops will deliver first-hand experience on market coupling from EPEX SPOT, – the famous market operator in the EU. I encourage everyone present today to participate in the discussions to get the most from this activity and build a strong knowledge base about the market coupling procedure.”
Deputy Minister for European Integration, Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, Yaroslav Demchenkov, thanked USAID ESP for its fruitful and long-lasting cooperation on Ukraine’s energy market integration into the EU.
“We understand that we are facing many challenges regarding the further integration of energy markets, not only on technical aspects but also on the adaptation of European rules and norms of doing business in the energy market, the market in general, and the interaction between institutions. The task of the Government and the Regulator is to implement the unification of Ukrainian commercial energy markets with the EU and Moldova markets as quickly as possible. Therefore, we are grateful to the USAID ESP team for organizing practical training to move forward and be ready to be a part of the European energy market soon,” said the Deputy Minister.
After the introductory part, Pierre Milon, Head of Market Coupling Projects Algorithms at the EPEX SPOT, presented the regulatory and legal landscapes overview on both the Central and EU levels.
The first workshop also covered the following:
- Designation criteria, national competence, and designation process of the Nominated Electricity Market Operator (NEMO);
- Roles and responsibilities of NEMO on the day-ahead and/or intraday markets;
- Delegation of tasks on trading asset management and market coupling operations;
- How to join the cooperation and move from observer status to operational party;
- Several cases of single intraday coupling and single day-ahead coupling in regional contracts.
During the workshop, the participants also learned about the cooperation algorithm between the transmission system operator and NEMO since January 2022, a new joint governance structure was implemented in Europe to enhance the cooperation in single day-ahead coupling and single intra-day coupling. Pierre Milon guided participants through two case studies. The first focused on single intraday coupling, and the second one, single day-ahead coupling in regional contracts since some NEMOs like EPEX SPOT are co-owners of the market coupling auction solution (systems, contracts, procedures).
A series of workshops will run until the beginning of October 2023, followed by the development of a detailed roadmap for electricity market coupling with the EU markets and Moldova.