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FAQ

OKTE, a.s. Operation Order is placed on the website legislation

OKTE, a.s. as nominated electricity market operator

OKTE, a.s. as nominated electricity market operator

The organised short-term cross-border electricity market in Europe is a wholesale pan-European electricity market. In this market, producers, consumers, and suppliers from all coupled countries can offer electricity for sale and demand electricity for purchase, and it is a short-term market, i.e., trades will be concluded from the day before the day of delivery of electricity (day-ahead market; SDAC) to 30 minutes before the supply of electricity (intraday market; SIDC).

To organizing the short-term cross-border electricity market, OKTE operates the XMtrade®/ISOT platform, which is used to receive orders, match orders, and evaluate the organized short-term cross-border electricity market.

The day-ahead market is auction-based daily cross-border trading as part of an organised short-term cross-border electricity market, with trading generally taking place 1 calendar day before the trading day.

The intraday market is the continuous intraday cross-border trading as part of the organised short-term cross-border electricity market.

General questions on the terms and conditions for participation in the organised short-term cross-border electricity market

General questions on the terms and conditions for participation in the organised short-term cross-border electricity market

To get access to the XMtrade®/ISOT system, a market participant in an organised short-term cross-border electricity market must have:

  • valid and effective Agreement on Settlement of imbalances
  • valid and effective Agreement on the Access to and the Conditions for Participation in the Organized Short-Term cross-border Electricity Market

The contract shall come into effect after payment of the annual fixed payment, submission of the SEPA B2B direct debit mandate and the deposit of the financial guarantee. In order to get access to the XMtrade®/ISOT system, it is necessary to fill in the Request for creation/change of a user account to the XMtrade®/ISOT system and to send this request to the nominated electricity market operator, OKTE, a.s., at the address certificate@okte.sk.

The request for access to the ISOT system can be found on the OKTE, a.s. website under the Short-Term Market part in the Documentation section.

According to the relevant Decision of RONI (ÚRSO), price is specified for:

  • annual fixed fee for organizing and evaluation of the organized short-term cross-border electricity market,
  • tariff for organizing and evaluation of the organized short-term cross-border electricity market, applicable for electricity purchased and sold on the organized short-term cross-border electricity market.

    The amount of the fees is specified in the decisions of RONI (Regulatory Office for Network Industries) in the section Legislation

The financial guarantee is represented by the available financial guarantee of the DFZ (available financial security).

A market participant in an organised Short-Term Cross-Border Electricity Market may secure a DFZ by one or a combination of the following options:

  • by depositing cash into the bank account of OKTE, a.s,
  • by providing a bank guarantee issued by a bank licensed in the Slovak Republic with a long-term credit rating of BBB+ (S&P) or Baa1 (Moody's) or by the Slovak Guarantee and Development Bank or EXIMBANKA SR with a validity period of at least 12 months in the Slovak language.

Further information is described in the Operation Order of OKTE, a.s.

The activities of a Short-Term Market Participant may give rise to financial guarantee towards Settlement of Imbalance. For this purpose, the market participant as subject of imbalance shall provide financial guarantees to the Subject of Settlement. For more information, please refer to the Imbalance settlement FAQ.

The Short-Term Market Participant determines the amount of the DFZ according to its expected orders on the organised Short-Term Cross-Border Electricity Market from which the financial obligations for the Short-Term Market Participant arise and the size of the expected financial obligations resulting from the settlement of the organised Short-Term Cross-Border Electricity Market and the settlement of the Short-Term Market Participant's obligations to OKTE, a.s. resulting from this settlement, but at least in the amount of €10,000. Towards OKTE, a.s., the placing of the order shall require financial guarantee equal to the largest possible payment, including VAT, which the market participant would have paid to the OKTE, a.s. in the case, that the order would have been fully traded.

The available financial guarantee (DFZ) of a Short-Term Market Participant shall be calculated according to the following formula:

                             DFZ(ÚT)=DÚ(ÚT)+∑(BZ∈ÚT)BZ-NP(ÚT)+NZ(ÚT)-FOO(ÚT)

whereby

DFZ(ÚT) =       is market participant's available financial guarantee (EUR),

DÚ(ÚT) =         is balance of market participant´s funds placed on deposit account as a financial guarantee of orders towards the short-term cross-border electricity market organizer (EUR),

 BZ =                is a sum of bank guarantees (EUR) (bank guarantee valid for less than 30 days not continuously followed by another bank guarantee shall not be taken into consideration),

 NP(ÚT) =        are unpaid assets of the short-term cross-border electricity market organizer towards the market participant (EUR) (assets of the short-term cross-border electricity market organizer towards the market participant not paid in the time of calculation of the DFZ),

NZ(ÚT) =        are unpaid liabilities of the short-term cross-border electricity market organizer towards the market participant (EUR) (liabilities of the short-term cross-border electricity market organizer towards the market participant not paid in the time of calculation of the DFZ),

FOO(ÚT) =      is financial amount of the market participant's orders placed for the following business day (EUR).

Further information can be found in the Operation Order.

If the Short-Term Market Participant has not paid OKTE, a.s. by due date an obligation in connection with the Agreement on the Access to and the Conditions for Participation in the Organized Short-Term cross-border Electricity Market or the Agreement on Settlement of imbalances, OKTE, a.s. is authorised to use the financial guarantee of the Short-Term Market Participant for the payment of the incurred liabilities.

The Short-Term Market Participant will be informed of the use of the financial collateral no later than on the first business day following the day on which the financial guarantee was applied. Non-payment of a due advance prescription within its due date shall also be considered as an unpaid liability to OKTE, a.s.

The financial guarantee must cover the financial volume of submitted orders that have not yet entered the matching process and the financial volume of submitted orders that have been successfully matched.

A market participant adjusting its trading position:

  • may cause the amount of its liabilities to OKTE, a.s. to be higher than its DFZ financial volume, in this case it is necessary for it to replenish its financial guarantee to the extent, that it covers all of the Short-Term Market Participant's liabilities to OKTE, a.s.,
  • may cause the amount of its liabilities to OKTE, a.s. to be lower than its DFZ; in this case, the Short-Term Market Participant may request in writing that the DFZ will be reduced to a level, that covers all of the Short-Term Market Participant's assets. The request for the return of part of the financial guarantee is available on the website under Short-Term Market - Contracts.

In the day-ahead market a sell order and a buy order is validated against financial guarantee:

  • immediately, if the order was placed after 00:00 a.m. on the day before the relevant business day,
  • from 00:00 a.m. on the day before the relevant business day, if the order has been placed two or more days ahead. The checking of the financial guarantee is done again after the gate closure time (day-ahead).

In the intraday market a sell order and a buy order is validated against the financial guarantee immediately.

General questions on trading conditions on the organised cross-border electricity market

General questions on trading conditions on the organised cross-border electricity market

A Short-Term Market Participant has the right to place any number of sell orders and any number of buy orders.

No, a Short-Term Market Participant can only place sell orders and buy orders for himself.

The order could be rejected as immediately as the order is placed due to invalid values of quantity and price in the order or due to insufficient financial guarantee. Rejection during advance ordering is due to insufficient financial guarantee. A rejected order will not be traded. In case of entering incorrect values within the allowed values of quantity and price and executing such an order, OKTE a.s. is not liable for property loss, since the Short-Term Market Participant is responsible for the entered data and such orders cannot be claimed.

Day-ahead market

Day-ahead market

Market participants can submit buy or sell orders within the day-ahead market until the deadline for submission at 12:00 (noon) of the calendar day preceding the trading day.

Yes, in this case the Short-Term Market Participant will be informed via relevant notification or via banner published in the XMtrade®/ISOT

Order matching is done using the day-ahead market algorithm. The organisation of order matching by the daily market algorithm depends on the matching mode. A description of the daily market algorithm depending on the matching mode is described in the Operating Rules in Annex 1. Trading on the daily market platform is based on the principle of implicit auction.

More in-depth description is described in the document Description of the function of the EUPHEMIA order matching algorithm, which is published on the OKTE, a.s. website in the Documentation section.

Market participant can submit orders within following products:

  • hourly product:
    • standard hourly order
  • block product:
    • simple block order,
    • linked block order,
    • flexible hourly block order,
    • exclusive group of simple block orders.

Detailed description of individual products is available in Operation order.

Standard order is product in XMtrade®/ISOT. It is classified as hourly product.

Within standard order market participant can trade 24 business hours (23/25 in case of transition to CEST/CET) of one business day in a way, that for every business period maximum of 25 blocks defining amount and price of electricity is possible. The prices indicated in the blocks of the sale order must be placed in ascending order and prices in the blocks of purchase order must be placed in descending order. Individual business hours can be accepted (traded) separately. First block of the standard order provides market participant with the possibility of using the performance divisibility attribute. Performance divisibility is attribute, which determines whether it is possible to divide the volume of electricity when matching an order (whether the volume may be reduced, whether only a part of the offered volume may be purchased).

Simple order is product in XMtrade®/ISOT. It is classified as block product.

Within standard order market participant can place any amount for any business hour, while simultaneously submit price, which is equal for every business hour. Simple order consists only of one block which consists of 24 business hours, when transitioning to CEST, business day is considered as 23 business hours, while when transitioning to CET, business day is considered as 25 business hours.

Linked order is product in XMtrade®/ISOT. It is classified as block product.

Linked order is simple order, which has assigned parent block order, which acceptance is condition for possible matching of given linked order.

There can be a maximum of 7 orders within a group of linked orders. Up to 3 orders can be defined under a parent order, and each child order can have only 1 parent order defined. Block orders can be linked into a maximum of 3 levels, with the first level always being a simple block (profile) order.

Orders can only be linked in the same direction (buy, sell).

Flexible block order is in XMtrade®/ISOT classified as block product.

A Short-Term Market Participant can define a quantity and a limit price for 1 unspecified Trading Hour within all Trading Hours of a given Trading Day under a Flexible Hourly Block Order. The resulting trading hour will be determined by the daily market evaluation algorithm according to the order matching rules defined within Annex 1 of the Operating Order of OKTE, a.s.

Exclusive block order is in XMtrade®/ISOT classified as block product.

A Short-Term Market Participant can define at least 2 and at most 8 single orders within an exclusive order, while the daily market evaluation algorithm determines only one order that can be traded.

A Short-Term Market Participant can place single and block orders through XMtrade®/ISOT as follows:

  • via the order form in XMtrade®/ISOT,
  • by importing an xlsx/XML file,
  • through automatic data exchange.

Yes, a Short-Term Market Participant has the right to modify or remove an existing order in connection with a change in quantity or price for a particular trading period, or weighted average price in the case of block products, up to the order acceptance deadline of 12:00 (noon) on the day prior to the day of delivery. A modification of the original order replaces the original version of the order.

Each placed or modified order is validated at:

  • compliance with the required trading resolution of the trading hour,
  • compliance with the correct specification of the performance divisibility condition within the selected trading hours of the first block, which can only be defined for standard hourly orders,
  • compliance with the assignment of electricity quantity and price in at least one trading hour of the block,
  • compliance with the paired entry of the quantity of electricity and the price, or weighted average price, in the trading hour of the order,
  • compliance with the minimum amount of electricity in a trading period (0.1 MWh),
  • compliance with the maximum amount of electricity in a trading period (99 999 MWh) ,
  • compliance with the minimum price (-500 €/MWh),
  • compliance with the maximum price (4 000 €/MWh),
  • compliance with the ascending price trend for hourly standard orders for sales and the descending price trend for standard orders for purchases,
  • specific validations to ensure the correct specification of block products,
  • the current status of the financial guarantee (DFZ)

The result of the day-ahead market algorithm is the resulting price in the trading area and the trading position of individual market participants (traded electricity volume). The marginal price is different for each trading area and trading hour separately.

The marginal price is equal to or less than the price of the last accepted demand. The traded volume of electricity is determined by the intersection of the supply curve and the demand curve.

The second auction is the re-opening of the orderbook and the re-pairing of orders and is announced if the first pairing of orders (first auction) resulted in a clearing price outside the range of -500 to +4 000 (minus 500 to plus 4 000) €/MWh in at least one hour.

A second auction is only organised for those hours in which a price has been incurred outside the above range. The results of the matching of the second auction are always final.

Intraday market

Intraday market

All tradable products on the intraday market are the Limit Order type. A Limit Order is an indication of an order that is tradable at a price equal to or higher (sell) or at a price equal to or lower (buy) than its limit price condition.

The intraday market consists of the following tradable products:

  • simple orders with a period length of 60 minutes,
  • simple orders with a period length of 15 minutes,
  • block orders covering 2 or more trading periods with a period length of 60 minutes.

A Short-Term Market Participant can place single and block orders through XMtrade®/ISOT as follows:

  • via the order form in XMtrade®/ISOT,
  • by importing an xlsx/XML file,
  • through automatic data exchange.

The volume is indicated in MW and the price is indicated in €/MWh.

Order indications are attributes, that a Short-Term Market Participant can assign to simple orders. Simple orders refer to one trading period only.

The following order indications are defined in the XMtrade®/ISOT system:

  • IOC (Immediate or Cancel) - a simple order is paired immediately and can be partially traded.
  • FOK (Fill or Kill) - a simple order is paired immediately and must be traded in full,
  • AON (All or Nothing) - the block order must be traded in full.
  • Without indication – simple order is available for pairing until its expiry date.

Block orders are automatically assigned AON volume indivisibility.

Each placed or modified order is validated at:

  • compliance with the correct trading period resolution,
  • compliance with the paired entry of the electricity quantity and price within the order,
  • compliance with the minimum amount of electricity (0.1 MW),
  • compliance with the maximum amount of electricity (999 MW),
  • compliance with the minimum price (-€9 999),
  • compliance with the maximum price (€9 999),
  • status of financial guarantee towards OKTE, a.s.

Order matching is done using an intraday market algorithm. The organisation of order matching by the intraday market algorithm depends on the matching mode. A description of the intraday market evaluation algorithm depending on the matching mode is described in the Operating Rules .

The time window for the regular service outage is from 19:00 to 22:00 every Tuesday.  In the event that trading on the intraday market is suspended, the Short-term Market participant is notified via XMtrade®/ISOT.