London, 17 February 2011

APX-ENDEX, Belpex and Nord Pool Spot today announce the launch of cross-border intraday market for trading the Dutch-Belgian border.

The launch of the cross-border intraday market is a joint effort of APX-ENDEX, Belpex and Nord Pool Spot, together with the Dutch and Belgian transmission system operators TenneT and Elia. The integrated cross-border trading solution is based on the existing Nord Pool Spot’s Elbas technology, a proven system already operated in the Nordic countries, Estonia and Germany. As announced earlier, the initial implementation of the integrated intraday markets include the Netherlands and Belgium and will be followed by integration of NorNed cable as well as the Dutch-German border.

The solution is a continuous trading system where trades in one country are automatically matched with bids and offers in the other country as long as there is capacity available on an intraday basis. The Dutch and Belgian day-ahead electricity markets have been integrated since 2006 and currently have aligned prices for approximately 80% of the time.

The Dutch market will follow the example of the Belgian market where electricity can be traded 24/7.

As a result of the recent merger of APX-ENDEX and Belpex as well as the launch of the cross-border intraday market, the intraday fees between the two markets will be aligned in March.

The development of intraday markets is considered as a high priority due to increased renewable generation sources, which increases the demand for trading close to the time of delivery. Integrated regional and inter-regional markets, which offer easy access to bids and offers in other countries, are critical to the development of the market liquidity and follow the trend of integration of European electricity markets that started with the integration of the day-ahead markets in 2006.

The launch of cross-border intraday solution between the Netherlands and Belgium is another step forward in the integration of the European electricity markets.

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