PRESS RELEASE
2/19/2014

Czech-Slovak-Hungarian-Romanian Market Coupling go-live in Q4/2014

As a result of the 5M Market Coupling Project decision from August 2013 to start implementation of the market coupling involving the Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and Romanian day-ahead electricity markets the 4M Market Coupling (4M MC) Project has started to work. Recently the 4M MC Steering Committee approved the latest development and welcomed the full commitment of all involved parties. The Steering Committee further acknowledged the progress achieved by the project team and appreciated that all parties had advanced significantly in assessment of the required technical solutions and common interfaces and started the preparation for implementation of all systems.

In January 2014, 4M MC Power Exchanges successfully concluded the necessary preliminary steps to be ready to start the implementation of the Price Coupling of Regions (PCR) solution into their IT infrastructure aiming to become fully compatible with the IEM target model. This is a crucial stage, in order to achieve the overall EU target of a harmonised European day-ahead electricity market. While OTE has become a Full PCR Member since March 2013, HUPX, OPCOM and OKTE have finished all needed procurement procedures and selected their Service Provider for the PCR solution. PCR is the initiative of seven European Power Exchanges, which provides a single price coupling solution to be used to calculate electricity prices across Europe, and allocate cross-border capacity on a day-ahead basis.

The 4M MC Transmission System Operators agreed on the TSO Management Function (mTMF) system architecture. mTMF delivers efficient management of all common TSO duties and operates a common TSO-PX communication interface. Once in operation, the mTMF will represent a universal platform promoting cross-regional market integration that will be open to be extended towards other markets.

Based on the project progress, the Steering Committee approved the plan to go-live of the 4M MC before the end of the year 2014 in order to promote the benefits of the interconnected markets to their participants as soon as possible. 4M MC Project is expected to increase liquidity, efficiency, and social welfare in the coupled markets.

As agreed in August by the 5M Market Coupling Steering Committee, the Polish Parties (PX (TGE), TSO (PSE) and NRA (URE)) have the observer status in the 4M MC Project in order to be fully informed about the extension activities allowing future smooth integration.

The involved parties will inform regularly about further progress of the 4M Market Coupling Project.

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Press Release