MCSC confirms 15-minute SDAC power trading delay

Market: Electricity
14/05/25

The Market Coupling Steering Committee (MCSC) has confirmed that Europe's transition to 15-minute settlement periods in the Single Day-Ahead Coupling (SDAC) market will be delayed to 30 September, citing some parties' lack of "non-technical readiness".

The joint committee of nominated electricity market operators (Nemos) and transmission system operators (TSOs) had planned to launch 15-minute settlements on 11 June, and it stressed that most parties are technically ready for this date.

But as some parties are not ready, the first delivery date for 15-minute trading will now be 1 October, after market launch a day earlier.

The MCSC said it had considered "alternative go-live scenarios", but concluded that these could not be accommodated.

Eleven Nemos confirmed their "readiness and commitment" to Argus in April, with only French-based exchange Epex Spot saying it would vote against the 11 June start date, citing "operational concerns" and "too many failures in testing".

The Nemos — including Oslo-based Nord Pool, Spain's Omie and Italy's GME — did not "share [Epex Spot's] misgivings", and said the decoupling risk cited by Epex Spot was "not due to a lack of reliability" in the system. Instead, they attributed this to certain parties' internal initial local testing problems.

The MCSC confirmed that "performance tests of the joint systems and procedural tests have been successfully completed" and that they "were on a good track".

By Daniel Craig

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