Regulation (EU) 2019/943 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

SECTION 1 Capacity Allocation

Article 14 Bidding zone review

1. Member States shall take all appropriate measures to address congestions. Bidding zone borders shall be based on long-term, structural congestions in the transmission network. Bidding zones shall not contain such structural congestions unless they have no impact on neighbouring bidding zones, or, as a temporary exemption, their impact on neighbouring bidding zones is mitigated through the use of remedial actions and those structural congestions do not lead to reductions of cross-zonal trading capacity in accordance with the requirements of Article 16. The configuration of bidding zones in the Union shall be designed in such a way as to maximise economic efficiency and to maximise cross-zonal trading opportunities in accordance with Article 16, while maintaining security of supply.

2. Every three years, the ENTSO for Electricity shall report on structural congestions and other major physical congestions between and within bidding zones, including the location and frequency of such congestions, in accordance with the capacity allocation and congestion management guideline adopted on the basis of Article 18(5) of Regulation (EC) No 714/2009. That report shall contain an assessment of whether the cross-zonal trade capacity reached the linear trajectory pursuant to Article 15 or the minimum capacity pursuant to Article 16 of this Regulation.

3. In order to ensure an optimal configuration of bidding zones, a bidding zone review shall be carried out. That review shall identify all structural congestions and shall include an analysis of different configurations of bidding zones in a coordinated manner with the involvement of affected stakeholders from all relevant Member States, in accordance with the capacity allocation and congestion management guideline adopted on the basis of Article 18(5) of Regulation (EC) No 714/2009. Current bidding zones shall be assessed on the basis of their ability to create a reliable market environment, including for flexible generation and load capacity, which is crucial to avoiding grid bottlenecks, balancing electricity demand and supply, securing the long-term security of investments in network infrastructure.

4. For the purposes of this Article and of Article 15 of this Regulation, relevant Member States, transmission system operators or regulatory authorities are those Member States, transmission system operators or regulatory authorities participating in the review of the bidding zone configuration and also to those in the same capacity calculation region pursuant to the capacity allocation and congestion management guideline adopted on the basis of Article 18(5) of Regulation (EC) No 714/2009.

5. By 5 October 2019 all relevant transmission system operators shall submit a proposal for the methodology and assumptions that are to be used in the bidding zone review process and for the alternative bidding zone configurations to be considered to the relevant regulatory authorities for approval. The relevant regulatory authorities shall take a unanimous decision on the proposal within 3 months of submission of the proposal. Where the regulatory authorities are unable to reach a unanimous decision on the proposal within that time frame, ACER shall, within an additional three months, decide on the methodology and assumptions and the alternative bidding zone configurations to be considered. The methodology shall be based on structural congestions which are not expected to be overcome within the following three years, taking due account of tangible progress on infrastructure development projects that are expected to be realised within the following three years.

6. On the basis of the methodology and assumptions approved pursuant to paragraph 5, the transmission system operators participating in the bidding zone review shall submit a joint proposal to the relevant Member States or their designated competent authorities to amend or maintain the bidding zone configuration no later than 12 months after approval of the methodology and assumptions pursuant to paragraph 5. Other Member States, Energy Community Contracting Parties or other third countries sharing the same synchronous area with any relevant Member State may submit comments.

7. Where structural congestion has been identified in the report pursuant to paragraph 2 of this Article or in the bidding zone review pursuant to this Article or by one or more transmission system operators in their control areas in a report approved by the competent regulatory authority, the Member State with identified structural congestion shall, in cooperation with its transmission system operators, decide, within six months of receipt of the report, either to establish national or multinational action plans pursuant to Article 15, or to review and amend its bidding zone configuration. Those decisions shall be immediately notified to the Commission and to ACER.

8. For those Member States that have opted to amend the bidding zone configuration pursuant to paragraph 7, the relevant Member States shall reach a unanimous decision within six months of the notification referred to in paragraph 7. Other Member States may submit comments to the relevant Member States, who should take account of those comments when reaching their decision. The decision shall be reasoned and shall be notified to the Commission and ACER. In the event that the relevant Member States fail to reach a unanimous decision within those six months, they shall immediately notify the Commission thereof. As a measure of last resort, the Commission after consulting ACER shall adopt a decision whether to amend or maintain the bidding zone configuration in and between those Member States by six months after receipt of such a notification.

9. Member States and the Commission shall consult relevant stakeholders before adopting a decision under this Article.

10. Any decision adopted under this Article shall specify the date of implementation of any changes. That implementation date shall balance the need for expeditiousness with practical considerations, including forward trade of electricity. The decision may establish appropriate transitional arrangements.

11. Where further bidding zone reviews are launched under the capacity allocation and congestion management guideline adopted on the basis of Article 18(5) of Regulation (EC) No 714/2009, this Article shall apply.

Article 15 Action plans

1. Following the adoption of a decision pursuant to Article 14(7), the Member State with identified structural congestion shall develop an action plan in cooperation with its regulatory authority. That action plan shall contain a concrete timetable for adopting measures to reduce the structural congestions identified within four years of the adoption of the decision pursuant to Article 14(7).

2. Irrespective of the concrete progress of the action plan, Member States shall ensure that without prejudice to derogations granted under Article 16(9) or deviations under Article 16(3), the cross-zonal trade capacity is increased on an annual basis until the minimum capacity provided for in Article 16(8) is reached. That minimum capacity shall be reached by 31 December 2025.

Those annual increases shall be achieved by means of a linear trajectory. The starting point of that trajectory shall be either the capacity allocated at the border or on a critical network element in the year before adoption of the action plan or the average during the three years before adoption of the action plan, whichever is higher. Member States shall ensure that, during the implementation of their action plans the capacity made available for cross-zonal trade to be compliant with Article 16(8) is at least equal to the values of the linear trajectory, including by use of remedial actions in the capacity calculation region.

3. The cost of the remedial actions necessary to achieve the linear trajectory referred to in paragraph 2 or make available cross-zonal capacity at the borders or on critical network elements concerned by the action plan shall be borne by the Member State or Member States implementing the action plan.

4. On an annual basis, during the implementation of the action plan and within six months of its expiry, the relevant transmission system operators shall assess for the previous 12 months whether the available cross-border capacity has reached the linear trajectory or, from 1 January 2026, the minimum capacities provided for in Article 16(8) have been achieved. They shall submit their assessments to ACER and to the relevant regulatory authorities. Before drafting the report, each transmission system operator shall submit its contribution to the report, including all the relevant data, to its regulatory authority for approval.

5. For those Member States for which the assessments referred to in paragraph 4 demonstrate that a transmission system operator has not complied with the linear trajectory, the relevant Member States shall, within six months of receipt of the assessment report referred to in paragraph 4, decide unanimously whether to amend or maintain the bidding zone configuration within and between those Member States. In their decision, the relevant Member States should take account of any comments submitted by other Member States. The relevant Member States' decision shall be substantiated and shall be notified to the Commission and to ACER.

The relevant Member States shall notify the Commission immediately if they fail to reach a unanimous decision within the timeframe laid down. Within six months of receipt of such notification, the Commission, as a last resort and after consulting ACER and the relevant stakeholders shall adopt a decision whether to amend or maintain the bidding zone configuration in and between those Member States.

6. Six months before the expiry of the action plan, the Member State with identified structural congestion shall decide whether to address remaining congestion by amending its bidding zone or whether to address remaining internal congestion with remedial actions for which it shall cover the costs.

7. Where no action plan is established within six months of identification of structural congestion pursuant to Article 14(7), the relevant transmission system operators shall, within 12 months of identification of such structural congestion, assess whether the available cross-border capacity has reached the minimum capacities provided for in Article 16(8) during the previous 12 months and shall submit an assessment report to the relevant regulatory authorities and to ACER.

Before drafting the report, each transmission system operator shall send its contribution to the report, including all relevant data, to its national regulatory authority for approval. Where the assessment demonstrates that a transmission system operator has not complied with the minimum capacity, the decision-making process laid down in paragraph 5 of this Article shall apply.

Article 16 General principles of capacity allocation and congestion management

1. Network congestion problems shall be addressed with non-discriminatory market-based solutions which give efficient economic signals to the market participants and transmission system operators involved. Network congestion problems shall be solved by means of non-transaction-based methods, namely methods that do not involve a selection between the contracts of individual market participants. When taking operational measures to ensure that its transmission system remains in the normal state, the transmission system operator shall take into account the effect of those measures on neighbouring control areas and coordinate such measures with other affected transmission system operators as provided for in Regulation (EU) 2015/1222.

2. Transaction curtailment procedures shall be used only in emergency situations, namely where the transmission system operator must act in an expeditious manner and redispatching or countertrading is not possible. Any such procedure shall be applied in a non-discriminatory manner. Except in cases of force majeure, market participants that have been allocated capacity shall be compensated for any such curtailment.

3. Regional coordination centres shall carry out coordinated capacity calculation in accordance with paragraphs 4 and 8 of this Article, as provided for in point (a) of Article 37(1) and in Article 42(1).

Regional coordination centres shall calculate cross-zonal capacities respecting operational security limits using data from transmission system operators including data on the technical availability of remedial actions, not including load shedding. Where regional coordination centres conclude that those available remedial actions in the capacity calculation region or between capacity calculation regions are not sufficient to reach the linear trajectory pursuant to Article 15(2) or the minimum capacities provided for in paragraph 8 of this Article while respecting operational security limits, they may, as a measure of last resort, set out coordinated actions reducing the cross-zonal capacities accordingly. Transmission system operators may deviate from coordinated actions in respect of coordinated capacity calculation and coordinated security analysis only in accordance with Article 42(2).

By 3 months after the entry into operation of the regional coordination centres pursuant to Article 35(2) of this Regulation and every three months thereafter, the regional coordination centres shall submit a report to the relevant regulatory authorities and to ACER on any reduction of capacity or deviation from coordinated actions pursuant to the second subparagraph and shall assess the incidences and make recommendations, if necessary, on how to avoid such deviations in the future. If ACER concludes that the prerequisites for a deviation pursuant to this paragraph are not fulfilled or are of a structural nature, ACER shall submit an opinion to the relevant regulatory authorities and to the Commission. The competent regulatory authorities shall take appropriate action against transmission system operators or regional coordination centres pursuant to Article 59 or 62 of Directive (EU) 2019/944 if the prerequisites for a deviation pursuant to this paragraph were not fulfilled.

Deviations of a structural nature shall be addressed in an action plan referred to in Article 14(7) or in an update of an existing action plan.

4. The maximum level of capacity of the interconnections and the transmission networks affected by cross-border capacity shall be made available to market participants complying with the safety standards of secure network operation. Counter-trading and redispatch, including cross-border redispatch, shall be used to maximise available capacities to reach the minimum capacity provided for in paragraph 8. A coordinated and non-discriminatory process for cross-border remedial actions shall be applied to enable such maximisation, following the implementation of a redispatching and counter-trading cost-sharing methodology.

5. Capacity shall be allocated by means of explicit capacity auctions or implicit auctions including both capacity and energy. Both methods may coexist on the same interconnection. For intraday trade, continuous trading, which may be complemented by auctions, shall be used.

6. In the case of congestion, the valid highest value bids for network capacity, whether implicit or explicit, offering the highest value for the scarce transmission capacity in a given timeframe, shall be successful. Other than in the case of new interconnectors which benefit from an exemption under Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 1228/2003, Article 17 of Regulation (EC) No 714/2009 or Article 63 of this Regulation, establishing reserve prices in capacity-allocation methods shall be prohibited.

7. Capacity shall be freely tradable on a secondary basis, provided that the transmission system operator is informed sufficiently in advance. Where a transmission system operator refuses any secondary trade (transaction), this shall be clearly and transparently communicated and explained to all the market participants by that transmission system operator and notified to the regulatory authority.

8. Transmission system operators shall not limit the volume of interconnection capacity to be made available to market participants as a means of solving congestion inside their own bidding zone or as a means of managing flows resulting from transactions internal to bidding zones. Without prejudice to the application of the derogations under paragraphs 3 and 9 of this Article and to the application of Article 15(2), this paragraph shall be considered to be complied with where the following minimum levels of available capacity for cross-zonal trade are reached:

(a) for borders using a coordinated net transmission capacity approach, the minimum capacity shall be 70 % of the transmission capacity respecting operational security limits after deduction of contingencies, as determined in accordance with the capacity allocation and congestion management guideline adopted on the basis of Article 18(5) of Regulation (EC) No 714/2009;

(b) for borders using a flow-based approach, the minimum capacity shall be a margin set in the capacity calculation process as available for flows induced by cross-zonal exchange. The margin shall be 70 % of the capacity respecting operational security limits of internal and cross-zonal critical network elements, taking into account contingencies, as determined in accordance with the capacity allocation and congestion management guideline adopted on the basis of Article 18(5) of Regulation (EC) No 714/2009.

The total amount of 30 % can be used for the reliability margins, loop flows and internal flows on each critical network element.

9. At the request of the transmission system operators in a capacity calculation region, the relevant regulatory authorities may grant a derogation from paragraph 8 on foreseeable grounds where necessary for maintaining operational security. Such derogations, which shall not relate to the curtailment of capacities already allocated pursuant to paragraph 2, shall be granted for no more than one-year at a time, or, provided that the extent of the derogation decreases significantly after the first year, up to a maximum of two years. The extent of such derogations shall be strictly limited to what is necessary to maintain operational security and they shall avoid discrimination between internal and cross-zonal exchanges.

Before granting a derogation, the relevant regulatory authority shall consult the regulatory authorities of other Member States forming part of the affected capacity calculation regions. Where a regulatory authority disagrees with the proposed derogation, ACER shall decide whether it should be granted pursuant to point (a) of Article 6(10) of Regulation (EU) 2019/942. The justification and reasons for the derogation shall be published.

Where a derogation is granted, the relevant transmission system operators shall develop and publish a methodology and projects that shall provide a long-term solution to the issue that the derogation seeks to address. The derogation shall expire when the time limit for the derogation is reached or when the solution is applied, whichever is earlier.

10. Market participants shall inform the transmission system operators concerned within a reasonable period in advance of the relevant operational period whether they intend to use allocated capacity. Any allocated capacity that is not going to be used shall be made available again to the market, in an open, transparent and non-discriminatory manner.

11. As far as technically possible, transmission system operators shall net the capacity requirements of any power flows in opposite directions over the congested interconnection line in order to use that line to its maximum capacity. Having full regard to network security, transactions that relieve the congestion shall not be refused.

12. The financial consequences of a failure to honour obligations associated with the allocation of capacity shall be attributed to the transmission system operators or NEMOs who are responsible for such a failure. Where market participants fail to use the capacity that they have committed to use, or, in the case of explicitly auctioned capacity, fail to trade capacity on a secondary basis or give the capacity back in due time, those market participants shall lose the rights to such capacity and shall pay a cost-reflective charge. Any cost-reflective charges for the failure to use capacity shall be justified and proportionate. If a transmission system operator does not fulfil its obligation of providing firm transmission capacity, it shall be liable to compensate the market participant for the loss of capacity rights. Consequential losses shall not be taken into account for that purpose. The key concepts and methods for the determination of liabilities that accrue upon failure to honour obligations shall be set out in advance in respect of the financial consequences, and shall be subject to review by the relevant regulatory authority.

13. When allocating costs of remedial actions between transmission system operators, regulatory authorities shall analyse to what extent flows resulting from transactions internal to bidding zones contribute to the congestion between two bidding zones observed, and allocate the costs based on the contribution to the congestion to the transmission system operators of the bidding zones creating such flows except for costs induced by flows resulting from transactions internal to bidding zones that are below the level that could be expected without structural congestion in a bidding zone.

That level shall be jointly analysed and defined by all transmission system operators in a capacity calculation region for each individual bidding zone border, and shall be subject to the approval of all regulatory authorities in the capacity calculation region.

Article 17 Allocation of cross-zonal capacity across timeframes

1. Transmission system operators shall recalculate available cross-zonal capacity at least after day-ahead gate closure times and after intraday cross-zonal gate closure times. Transmission system operators shall allocate the available cross-zonal capacity plus any remaining cross-zonal capacity not previously allocated and any cross-zonal capacity released by physical transmission right holders from previous allocations in the following cross-zonal capacity allocation process.

2. Transmission system operators shall propose an appropriate structure for the allocation of cross-zonal capacity across timeframes, including day-ahead, intraday and balancing. That allocation structure shall be subject to review by the relevant regulatory authorities. In drawing up their proposal, the transmission system operators shall take into account:

(a) the characteristics of the markets;

(b) the operational conditions of the electricity system, such as the implications of netting firmly declared schedules;

(c) the level of harmonisation of the percentages allocated to different timeframes and the timeframes adopted for the different cross-zonal capacity allocation mechanisms that are already in place.

3. Where cross-zonal capacity is available after the intraday cross-zonal gate closure time, transmission system operators shall use the cross-zonal capacity for the exchange of balancing energy or for the operation of the imbalance netting process.

4. Where cross-zonal capacity is allocated for the exchange of balancing capacity or sharing of reserves pursuant to Article 6(8) of this Regulation, transmission system operators shall use the methodologies developed in the guideline on electricity balancing adopted on the basis of Article 6(11) of Regulation (EC) No 714/2009.

5. Transmission system operators shall not increase the reliability margin calculated pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/1222 due to the exchange of balancing capacity or sharing of reserves.