When making bids in Elspot all volumes are stated in MW per hour. In bidding purchases are designated as positive numbers, sales as negative numbers.
There are three types of bids available in Elspot; the hourly bid, block bid and flexible hourly bid. In addition each type of bid has different features making the product structure flexible for our participants. The three types of bids are described below.
Hourly bid
The hourly bid is the basic type of Elspot market order. Each participant selects the range of price steps for the Hourly Bid individually. The bid may consist of up to 62 price steps in addition to the current ceiling and floor price limts set by Nord Pool Spot.
The simplest bid is a price independent bid for all hours. The participant will receive a schedule of deliveries equal to the specified volume for all hours, regardless of the price level within the range.
Price
Hour |
0 |
2000 |
|
01-24 |
70 |
70 |
Participants who submit price dependent bids accept that Nord Pool Spot will make a linear interpolation of volumes between each adjacent pair of submitted price steps. Once the Elspot price for each hour is determined, a comparison with a participant's bid form for the day establishes the traded volume for that participant.
Price
Hour |
0 |
20 |
20.1 |
22 |
22.1 |
25 |
25.1 |
2000 |
| 01 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
02 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 03 |
50 |
50 |
0 |
0 |
-10 |
-10 |
-30 |
-30 |
Block bid
The block bid gives the participant the opportunity to set an 'all or nothing' condition for all the hours within the block. The block bid is an aggregated bid for several hours, with a fixed price and volume throughout these hours. The participants can freely pick the start and stop hour of a block but it must consist of at least four consecutive hours.
The block bid is particularly useful in cases where the cost of starting and stopping power production is high. Furthermore, inflexible production, consumption and contracts can be handled efficiently with block bids.
A block bid must be accepted in its entirety; thus, if accepted, the contract covers all hours and the volume specified in the bid. The block bid price is compared with the average Elspot price for the hours to which the block bid applies; A block bid is accepted if the following conditions are met:
- If the bid price of a sales block is lower than the average Elspot area price
- If the bid price of a purchase block is higher than the average Elspot area price
Each participant may post up to fifty block bids per delivery day.
Linked block bids
It is also possible to define links between block bids meaning that the evaluation and acceptance of one block bid (daughter block) is dependent on the acception of another block bid (mother block). It is possible to link up to three block bids together. The third bid is then dependent on acceptance of both the first and the second bid.
The linking of block bids is useful for instance when the cost of starting one generator depends on whether another generator is already started or not. Or if the start up of a generator at night is favourable only if the same generator is planned to run at daytime as well.
All block bids that are linked together must be either only sales or purchase blocks and all linked block bids must be connected to one bidding portfolio in one bidding area.
Flexible hourly bid
The flexible hourly bid is a sales bid fo a single hour with a fixed price and volume. The hour is not specified, but instead the bid will be accepted in the hour with the highest price in the calculation, given that the price is higher than the limit set in the bid.
This type of bid gives companies with power intensive consumption the ability to sell back power to the spot market by closing down industrial processes for the hour in question.