CROPEX joined the EU XBID Local Implementation Project

Croatian power exchange (CROPEX) and Croatian Transmission System Operator (HOPS), became part of 15th XBID Local Implementation Project a week ago, along with transmission system operators and power exchanges from Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary.

The main objective of the parties involved is to initiate coupling of intraday continuous electricity markets through implicit allocation of intraday cross-border capacity through the EU XBID project at the borders between the countries involved, says information that CROPEX published on its website.

XBID is Cross-Border Intraday Market Project for pan-European Intraday Coupling comprised of members from 14 European countries. The purpose of the XBID is to enable continuous cross-zonal trading and increase the overall efficiency of intraday trading on the single cross-zonal Intraday market across Europe.

In early 2016 Croatian Transmission System Operator Ltd. (HOPS) and CROPEX, together with all non-NWE+ parties, have formally joined the XBID Accession Stream. The main objective of the project is to establish cross-border intraday implicit continuous allocation of cross-border transmission capacities at pan-European level, in accordance with EU CACM regulations.

Given that on April 26, 2017 CROPEX successfully launched a local, continuous intraday electricity market, HOPS and CROPEX started analysing the potential options for joining one of the existing EU Local Implementation Projects (LIP) and following the formal procedure on  August 22, 2017, became members of the 15th Local Implementation Project, consisting of transmission system operators and power exchanges of five EU countries, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary. Thus, the Republic of Croatia with the Croatian-Hungarian border is formally included in one of the intraday market coupling local implementation cross-border projects. Based on the initial project timeline, the expected LIP 15 go-live is Q4/2018.

CROPEX Ltd. is a company established to provide a central location for trading electricity to their market participants in a safe, reliable and transparent way. CROPEX acts as Central Counter Party between sellers and buyers of electricity and takes the risks of buying and selling electricity for all day-ahead and intraday trades concluded on the trading platform. Croatian power exchange is equally owned by Croatian energy market operator Ltd. and Croatian Transmission System Operator Ltd.

Croatian Transmission System Operator Ltd (HOPS) mission is electric power system operation and maintenance, electricity transmission, as well as construction and development of electricity transmission network in order to maintain security of supply with minimal costs and environmental protection. HOPS is the sole electricity transmission system operator in the Republic of Croatia, and the owner of the entire Croatian transmission network (400 kV, 220kV and 110kV included voltage levels).