In the Spanish electricity market, energy prices are determined through the so-called Electricity Pool. This is a wholesale market based on a series of sessions or auctions called Day-Ahead and Intraday, in which purchase and sale offers from various authorized market participants—such as representatives, retailers, and producers—are negotiated.

In particular, the Day-Ahead session typically handles the bulk of energy offered for the 24 hours of the following day, while the Intraday sessions are intended to adjust the energy offered in the Day-Ahead market.

Once the bidding period for each session ends, the matching of buy and sell offers takes place, determining the energy each participant will sell or buy, along with the resulting price for that transaction. This process occurs for each hour and session operated.

In Spain, the Market Operator (OMIE) is responsible for managing all these offers and, among many other tasks, for publishing the results of the matching process and the prices for each session.

In addition to these sessions, it is important to highlight the existence of the Continuous Intraday Market (MIC), which since 2019 allows operators to adjust traded energy up to one hour before its final delivery. This additional flexibility gives market participants greater ability to adapt to changing market conditions and their own operational needs.

The features and scope of this continuous market not only allow participants to take advantage of liquidity in local operations, but also of liquidity available in European markets, under certain conditions that depend on cross-border capacity availability.

In short, given the possible price differences between sessions, market participants are empowered to execute energy trading strategies that optimize their buying and selling prices, while adjusting their forecasts to reduce costs associated with imbalances.

It is important to note that in June 2024, the European intraday sessions known as IDAS will come into effect. In practice, this will entail a change in the configuration of intraday sessions, reducing the current six adjustment sessions to three. This model will encourage the use of the Continuous Intraday Market (CIM) for participants who wish to adjust the energy they manage as the delivery time approaches.

TRADE: Unlock the full potential of your electricity market operations

In order for operators to focus on designing and analyzing the best strategies to optimize their imbalances and increase the economic performance of their portfolio, they need a comprehensive tool that facilitates their operations with the various market participants.

With this objective, the TRADE system developed by GNARUM allows the automation of all information exchange processes with the Market Operator (OMIE) and the System Operator (REE), and provides an interface from which each operator can design the strategy that best suits their operations.

TRADE offers a complete solution for managing the master data of each participant, their bilateral contracts, and for defining both basic and advanced operational strategies, along with a comprehensive set of reports to monitor results from every angle, both globally and for each session, in the Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian markets.

TRADE + FORECAST: The ultimate duo for energy optimization

To achieve the maximum performance of renewable assets in the market, a forecasting system is essential to predict the behavior of each plant under any possible scenario.

In this context, TRADE integrates natively with Gnarum’s FORECAST system. This service provides users with highly accurate predictions at multiple resolutions and frequencies, ranging from real-time to short- and medium-term forecasting, with horizons of up to 40 days.

FORECAST relies on orchestrating a broad pool of algorithms based on advanced machine learning techniques, combined with data collected from each unit, to deliver the most precise forecasts in all possible situations. This applies to both consumption units and renewable assets, including wind and photovoltaic plants.

The combination of the TRADE platform with the FORECAST service includes continuous integration of measurements and up to 24 forecast updates per day.

The result is an end-to-end integration that analyzes the behavior of each asset to manage its energy in the most optimal way across all markets.

This Meter-to-Market model aims to achieve the highest possible optimization in energy trading across available markets and sessions.

Given the upcoming market changes with the activation of the European intraday sessions (IDAs), this approach will become especially relevant for participants seeking to optimize their operations and maximize the performance of their units.

If you would like more information about this solution, don’t hesitate to contact us—at Gnarum, we’ll be happy to assist you.