By Nora Buli
OSLO (Reuters) – The Nord Pool exchange has received an operating license to host day-ahead power trading auctions for the first electricity cable linking Norway and Britain from this autumn, Norway’s Energy Regulatory Authority (NVE-RME) said on Wednesday.
The concession allows Nord Pool to run auctions for delivery over the new 1,400 megawatt (MW) North Sea Link cable once trial operations begin on Oct. 1, the regulator said.
On Tuesday, the operators of North Sea Link, transmission system operators (TSOs) Statnett and National Grid, announced testing of the subsea cable would commence on June 15.
Nord Pool will be running an implicit auction, meaning capacity on the cable and production traded on the exchange are auctioned together.
This ensures that electrical energy flows from areas with a surplus of power and lower prices to areas with a deficit and higher prices.
The cable connects Norway’s southern price zone NO2 with the British power market. Nord Pool already operates in both markets.
Initially, Nord Pool is the only platform to offer trading on the new connection though others may be allowed to do so in the future, for example via shared order books, NVE-RME said.
“Nord Pool is happy to receive this positive news from RME (NVE) today – and we appreciate the focus RME has put on securing an efficient go-live of the trading solution,” the exchange said in an e-mailed statement to Reuters.
(Reporting by Nora Buli, editing by Terje Solsvik)
