ACM launches market consultation on flow-based market coupling, and welcomes reactions

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) calls on Dutch market participants to respond no later than June 30 to a market consultation on flow-based market coupling. The consultation is jointly organized by the energy regulators in the Central West European region (CWE), which includes the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Belgium. The answers can be send to CWEPublicConsultation [at] me [punt] bnetza [punt] de (CWEPublicConsultation[at]me[dot]bnetza[dot]de).

All reactions will be sent to all regulators in the CWE region automatically. If you wish to submit your answers (or some of them) anonymously, please indicate this explicitly in your answers. The regulators will process the results of the consultation, and draw up a report, which will be released at a later point in time.

Smaller price differences because of flow-based market coupling

With flow-based market coupling, the allocation of transport capacity for cross-border trade in electricity will be improved. As a result, price differences between the countries in the CWE region will become smaller. Test results of flow-based market coupling over 2013 reveal that the wholesale price of electricity in the Netherlands will decrease, as will the price differences between, for example, the Netherlands and Germany. All energy consumers will benefit from lower wholesale prices. What the regulators wish to learn from market participants in the consultation is how they can best set up the preconditions of this complicated method.