As expected, the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) has finally published the regulations governing the implementation of the quarter-hour market in Spain in the Official State Gazette (BOE) . This will come into effect on March 17 and represents a structural change in energy marketing and responds to the requirements of European Regulation 2019/943, which requires electricity markets to operate with a 15-minute settlement unit. The quarter-hour market seeks to improve efficiency in supply and demand management , allowing for greater integration of renewable energy and facilitating a better response to consumption fluctuations. Until now, the Spanish wholesale market operated with hourly settlements, but with this change, transactions will have to be adjusted to 15-minute periods . According to the CNMC, the new regulation will allow for greater granularity in trading , optimizing the efficiency of the electricity market and facilitating the integration of technologies such as storage and demand management.
Keys to the regulations published in the BOE- Replacement of the hourly settlement system with 15-minute periods in the daily and intraday markets.
- Modification of the bid typologies , eliminating the traditional complex MIBEL bids and establishing new categories such as "Scalable Complex Orders" and "Simple Blocks."
- Adaptation of the financial settlement , adjusting the calculation of collection rights and payment obligations of agents based on the new time structure.
- Reforms to the operation of the intraday and daily markets , aligning their operation with the European market coupling system (Single Day-Ahead Coupling - SDAC - and Single Intraday Coupling - SIDC -).
- Compliance with the REMIT II regulation , which introduces new transaction data reporting obligations to the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER).