SIDC: Revised Go-Live for SIDC integration of Italy and new SIDC Release

The NEMOs and TSOs cooperating in LIP 14, which aims to integrate the Northern Italian borders (IT-FR, IT-AT and IT-SI) as well as the Italian internal bidding zones borders into the already coupled intraday region, have announced a revision of the project timeline following requests received from market party associations in recent weeks.

In parallel with the LIP implementation, Italy is currently undergoing a major reform of its ancillary services markets requiring market participants to accommodate major changes in their IT systems as well as market processes. Market participants have therefore requested to allow sufficient time for adaptation to the forthcoming changes. In order to take these requests into
account in the project planning, LIP 14 revised its timeline with the go-live date now scheduled on 21st September 2021 (first delivery date 22nd September).

A 3rd wave pre-launch event is being planned for 29th April 2021 to inform stakeholders of the forthcoming changes ahead of go-live. A trial period with market parties is also being arranged in a two week window starting from 21st June 2021, to provide opportunities for new users to gain familiarity with the SIDC solution and undertake their own tests. A second one week trial period starting on 6th September will be performed, in case issues are identified during the first
market trial.

The second phase of LIP 14, which will integrate the Greek borders (GR-IT and GR-BG) into SIDC, is expected to become operational in the project´s 4th wave go-live, currently planned in Q1 2022. The planning for the integration of Slovak borders into SIDC is under evaluation within LIP 17.

In addition to these geographical extension initiatives SIDC is currently close to finalising the testing campaign for the next release, which will be deployed in the coming weeks. The new release will add functionality required for regulatory reporting purposes as well as important usability improvements for SIDC operations.

SIDC currently couples the continuous intraday markets of 22 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

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About SIDC:
The SIDC solution is based on a common IT system with one Shared Order Book (SOB), a Capacity Management Module (CMM) and a Shipping Module (SM). It allows for orders entered by market participants for continuous matching in one bidding zone to be matched by orders similarly submitted by market participants in any other bidding zone within the project’s reach as long as transmission capacity is available. The intraday solution supports both explicit allocation on the Croatian/Slovenian and French/German borders (as requested by the respective National Regulatory Authorities, NRAs) and implicit continuous trading. It is in line with the EU Target model for an integrated intraday market.

European-wide intraday coupling is a key component for completing the European Internal Energy Market. With the rising share of intermittent generation in the European generation mix, connecting intraday markets through cross-border trading is an increasingly important tool for market parties to keep positions balanced. The purpose of the SIDC initiative is to increase the overall efficiency of intraday trading.