On Elspot, hourly power contracts are traded daily for physical delivery in the next day's 24-hour period. The price calculation is based on the balance between bids and offers from all market participants – finding the intersection point between the market’s supply curve and demand curve. This trading method is referred to as equilibrium point trading, auction trading, or simultaneous price setting. The price mechanism in Elspot adjusts the flow of power across the interconnectors - and also on certain connections within the Norwegian grid - to the available trading capacity given by the Nordic transmission system operators. Thus, Elspot is a common power market for the Nordic countries with an implicit capacity auction on the interconnectors between the bidding areas. 

All participants who meet the requirements set by Nord Pool Spot are given access to the Elspot market. However, Elspot market participants must have a balancing agreement with the respective transmission system operator or through a third party.

Key features of the Nordic Elspot market concept:

• Implicit auction
  The elspot concept is based on bids for purchase and sale of hourly contracts using three different bidding types: hourly bids, block bids and flexible hourly bids that cover some or all of the 24 hours of the next day
• Grid congestion management
  At the interconnections between the Nordic countries and within Norway, price mechanisms are used to relieve grid congestion (bottlenecks), by introducing different Elspot area prices. Within Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, grid congestion is managed by counter-trade purchases based on bids from generators.
• Area prices
  The total geographic market is divided into bidding areas; these may become separate price areas if the contractual flow of power between bid areas exceeds the capacity allocated for Elspot contracts by the transmission system operators. When such grid congestion develops, two or more area prices are created
• System price
  The Elspot market's system price is also denoted "the unconstrained market clearing price". This is because the system price is the price that balances sale and purchase in the exchange area while not considering any transmission constraints. When there actually are no constraints between the bidding areas, the area price are all equal to the system price.