Record volume of electricity traded on Czech short-term markets last year

2021 was a record year in terms of total trading volumes on the short-term electricity markets organised by OTE, a.s. The day-ahead market recorded year-on-year growth of 8.7% to 24.36 TWh, while the intraday market rose by as much as 17% to 5.21 TWh. This follows from an OTE press release.

The total volume of electricity traded on the short-term electricity markets reached 29.58 TWh last year, representing an annual increase of more than 10%. For comparison, this volume of electricity represents almost half of domestic net electricity consumption in 2021.

“In 2021, the record monthly trading volume on the day-ahead market was also exceeded, in October 2021, when 2.47 TWh was traded. The highest daily volume traded on the day-ahead electricity market was 100.5 GWh for delivery on 16 November 2021,” OTE said in the press release.

The market operator further stated that average electricity prices on both short-term markets rose significantly last year. Compared with 2020, the day-ahead market saw a year-on-year increase of 199%, while the intraday market recorded an increase of 185%. The average annual price on both markets ultimately exceeded 100 EUR/MWh – reaching 100.7 EUR/MWh on the day-ahead market and 106.1 EUR/MWh on the intraday market.

Activity on the last of the short-term markets operated by OTE, the block market, was minimal, with only 0.7 GWh of electricity traded.

Integration with the rest of Europe

The integration of short-term markets with the rest of Europe had a major impact on the growth in trading volumes. In the case of the intraday market, integration took place in November 2019, while the integration of the day-ahead market was completed in mid-2021.

“This was a very significant milestone for the Czech day-ahead electricity market, as bidding zones in almost all EU member states and Norway were coupled on the day-ahead market. In 2022, capacity calculation is expected to be adjusted using an approach based on physical flows (the Flow-Based method). The intraday electricity market in the Czech Republic was coupled as early as 2019. In 2022, the Czech-Slovak border is expected to be integrated into European intraday trading,” OTE added.

OTE organises trading on the day-ahead, intraday and block electricity markets, as well as on the intraday gas market. At the end of last year, 121 market participants had access to short-term electricity markets through OTE.