New continuous intraday market opening hours

Under Regulation (EU) 2015/1222 of the Commission of 24 July 2015, establishing guidelines for capacity allocation and congestion management (CACM Guideline), ACER Decision No. 4/2018 on opening and closing times for the continuous intraday market was approved, establishing 15:00 CET - Central European Time as the opening time. 
 
Seeking to implement the aforementioned ACER Decision, the Transmission Network Operators and the Market Operator of Portugal and Spain changed the hours of the intraday auction sessions in Iberia to better accommodate the opening of the continuous intraday market at 15:00 CET. The proposed amendment has already been approved by ERSE through GGS Notice No. 1 concerning the 'System Service Market Session Hours'.

This is yet another change to harmonise the rules and procedures of the European Integrated Energy Market to increase the overall efficiency of trades in the intraday market, promoting effective competition, increasing liquidity and enabling a more efficient use of generation resources across Europe.

With the increase in intermittent and renewable production, interest in trading in intraday markets is growing to minimise deviations from the contracted programme. The ability to trade energy up to an hour before the delivery period is an essential tool that enables market participants to adapt to unexpected changes in consumption and production.