National Grid’s NEMO link will go into commercial operation on 31 January, and day-ahead trading on the 1000MW interconnector with Belgium will begin tomorrow, 30 January.
But some products the market requested for the new Interconnector, notably trades for within-day sales, are not expected to be available until 2020. Market members asked for an intraday product because of the importance of this product to the market efficiency and balancing networks. But Nemo Link says that developing such a product is complex, because new Internal Energy Market rules for this part of the market are being written. Ofgem said, “we expect NLL to take marketparticipant’s concerns about the lack of intraday product into consideration and to work with them to introduce an intraday product as soon as is practicable.”
Ofgem also said that it expected the company to include provisions on balancing arrangements, including where users may offer ancillary services to assist with system operation, in the next iteration of its access rules (which are updated annually).
Assuming GB remains part of the EU Internal Energy Market post-Brexit on 29th March, the first explicit long term products will be sold from April.
Nemo Link is running a two-day workshop to launch its products on 12-13 February. Sign up for the workshop here.
Further reading
Nemo Link: will power flow across the interconnector in a no-deal Brexit?
Energy traders will require new EU registration in the event of a no-deal Brexit, says Ofgem
Viking Link interconnector granted onshore planning approval
Ofgem confirms ‘cap and floor’ guarantee for 4.2GW of interconnections – but Brexit raises concern