Portugal carries out first cross-border electrical replacement reserves exchange at the European level

The operation of the LIBRA trans-European platform was expanded to the Portuguese electrical system on 28 September, with the first cross-border replacement reserve exchanges between Portugal and Spain taking place on 29 September 2020. 

 

The LIBRA platform is a centralised platform capable of collecting all Replacement Reserve offers from the various domestic markets operated by each transmission network operator and of making an optimal allocation in order to satisfy, before real time, the differences between what is programmed in the daily and intraday markets and the generation and consumption forecasts.

 

The implementation of the trans-European platform contributes to increasing competition and liquidity on the market and favours the integration of renewable production. Its completion is an important step in the creation of the European internal market, and this project expansion will enable, for the first time at the European level, cross-border replacement reserve exchanges.  This extension is an important milestone, taking place after several years of development, technical cooperation, public consultations and complex and intensive testing, carried out by the various operators of the electrical systems.

 

This operation was carried out under the TERRE (Trans-European Replacement Reserve Exchange) project, in which REN - Redes Energéticas Nacionais has been actively participating since 2013, and seeks to materialise the concepts contained in the Electricity Balancing Guideline (Regulation No. 2196/2017 of the Committee, of 23 November 2017).