OKTE, a.s. is in charge of organization and evaluation of the organized short-term electricity market in the territory of the Slovak Republic in accordance with Act no. 251/2012 Coll. on Energy and on Amendments to Some Acts (The Act on Energy sector), Act No. 250/2012 Coll. on Regulation in Network Industries (The Act on Regulation), Decree of the Regulatory Office for Network Industries No. 207/2023 Coll. laying down the rules for the functioning of the internal electricity market and the content of Operational order of the transmission system operator, short-term electricity market operator and the scope of commercial terms and conditions which are part of the Operational order of the transmission system operator (Market Rules) as well as the OKTE, a.s. Operation Order (Operation Order). The aforementioned business activity of the company is regulated and subject to price regulation by the Regulatory Office for Network Industries.
The organized short-term electricity market allows its participants to adjust their trading position prior to the electricity supply/off-take and to reduce the likelihood of an imbalance between the planned and the actual value of the electricity supply/off-take. The day-ahead market allows submission of orders with delivery on the following day while the intraday market enables trading within the day of delivery.
The cross-border market means that the orders of market participants are not only traded within the SK bidding zone, but the matching is also happening across borders within the coupling region.
Since 19 November 2014, OKTE, a.s. in cooperation with foreign and Slovak partners have successfully put into operation the cross-border coupling of the Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and Romanian electricity markets, also known as the 4M MC.
The 4M MC coupling was followed by the launch of the Interim Coupling project (ICP) with a Go-Live on 17th June 2021. Thanks to the cooperation of national regulatory authorities, transmission system operators and national market operators, the ICP connected the 4M MC and MRC regions. Therein the SK bidding zone became a part of the Single Day-Ahead Coupling in Europe (SDAC).
Subsequently, on 8th June 2022, the Core Flow-Based Market Coupling (Core FB MC) project was launched and created the Core Capacity Calculation Region (Core CCR; the region in which the capacity is calculated based on the flow of electricity). The project connected the borders of bidding zones of Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Core FB MC is considered to be a target solution for the SDAC set by Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/1222 of 24 July 2015 establishing a guideline for capacity allocation and congestion management (CACM Regulation).
Next developments in the day-ahead market consider implementation of the 15-minute Market Time Unit (MTU), which also includes the start of publication of block order data.
In addition to the day-ahead market, OKTE, a.s. operates and develops continuous intraday trading solutions for the electricity market participants in the SK bidding zone. The actual launch of the intraday electricity market platform took place on 1 April 2016.
On 29th November 2022, OKTE, a.s. successfully joined Single Intraday Coupling project (SIDC), thereby integrating the Slovak bidding zone into continuous cross-border intraday trading within the EU. By launching cross-border intraday trading, market participants are also provided with the opportunity to trade 15-minute products on cross-border intraday market.
Since 2015, OKTE, a.s. has been operating as a nominated electricity market operator (NEMO) for the SK bidding zone and is currently designated to perform this function until 2027. By repeatedly obtaining the NEMO designation according to the CACM Regulation for the SK bidding zone, the company OKTE, a.s. proves that it meets not only the prerequisites for the performance of the functions arising from the Energy Act as the organizer of the short-term electricity market in the Slovak Republic, but also the demanding technical, legislative and administrative criteria and requirements, ensuring that organization of the short-term electricity market by OKTE, a.s. is happening according to European legislation.