PRESS RELEASE

(Bucharest, December 12, 2019)

On 11th of December 2019, five years after the launch of the day-ahead electricity markets coupling from Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and almost one month after the successful launch of the coupling of the Intraday electricity market from Romania with the markets of other 20 countries involved in this European project of introducing pan-European cross-border trading on the intraday timeframe, respectively Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, OPCOM received from the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority the extension of the designation as Nominated Electricity Market Operator (NEMO) until the date of 20.12.2026, in accordance with Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/1222 of 24 July 2015 establishing a guideline on capacity allocation and congestion management.

The Romanian gas and electricity market operator OPCOM S.A. announces its designation for the next seven years by the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority as ”Nominated Electricity Market Operator” (NEMO) to carry out tasks relating to single day-ahead and intraday market coupling. This designation, made by Decision no 2085/11.12.2019 of the ANRE President follows the nomination of OPCOM in 2015, by Decision no 2515/14.12.2015 of the ANRE President, to carry out the OPEED role for an initial period of four years

OPCOM carried out during this initial period of operation as NEMO, at a high level of performance, its role and responsibilities in accordance with the applicable primary and secondary legislation in force applicable for the day-ahead and the intraday market, as well as, with European regulations, methodologies, terms and conditions established at European or regional level.

The accomplishment of the development and implementation activities, as well as successful operation the day-ahead and the intraday coupled markets, including the reporting and surveillance activity of these electricity markets from Romania operating in the single day-ahead coupling (SDAC, Single Day-Ahead Coupling) and single intra-day coupling (SIDC, Single Intra-Day Coupling) in accordance with European regulations and carring out the counterparty role, including settlement of transactions established on the day-ahead and intraday electricity market, fully confirms that OPCOM has the capacity, practically demonstrated in the four years of initial designation as NEMO, necessary to fulfil the responsibilities set out by the Regulation (EU) 2015/1222 in order to integrate the electricity market from Romania into the single electricity market coupling on the two trading horizons operating by harmonised rules at European level.

In 2020 and the years to come, OPCOM will continue with the same determination its active participation in the ongoing European projects; on this occasion we mention only a few of the upcoming challenges: the development and implementation of Interim Coupling, a project that has the purpose of coupling 4M MC and Multi-Regional Coupling (MRC), the Project to introduce the implicit allocation on the RO-BG border, the Core FB MC project aimed at coupling the Core CCR borders using the flow based capacity calculation methodology developed according to the CACM provisions, further development of the PCR solution as a solution adopted for the fulfilment at European level of the market coupling operator function on the day-ahead market timeframe, other activities of development and diversification of the products, functionalities of operated trading platforms and services offered by OPCOM in the trading process on the day-ahead and the intraday electricity market from Romania operating integrated in SDAC and SIDC.

In these important endeavours, OPCOM is fully confident that, as they have always done, market participants will support OPCOM's active involvement for the benefit of the market and market participants, and all other stakeholders and authorities will play the same decisive role in the process of Romania's compliance with the European provisions relevant to the wholesale electricity market, to the benefit of the final consumer.

PRESS RELEASE 12.12.2019