The Danish Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Climate and the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy of the Federal Republic of Germany together with the Danish Energy Regulatory Authority (DERA) and Bundesnetzagentur have agreed on a Joint Declaration that aims to secure a minimum of available hourly import and export capacity (referred to as minimum capacities) in each hour on the interconnector between West Denmark (DK1) and Germany.

The Joint Declaration was launched on the 3rd of July 2017 with a pilot project lasting until the end of November 2017, and will until 2020 increase the minimum capacities in a stepwise approach.

The Joint Declaration specifies that the two TSOs, TenneT Germany and Energinet, shall, in case of physical congestion, conduct countertrade to secure the minimum capacities.

Currently the TSOs are using existing methods, which might not be sustainable for the growing amount of countertrade. The TSOs have therefore as part of the implementation of the Joint Declaration prepared an impact assessment of different alternative countertrade options, which has been sent to the relevant regulators and published on the stakeholder workshop webpage.

Stakeholder involvement in the analysis

Stakeholder involvement in the analysis of the models has been ensured through two workshops, individual discussions and the inclusion of written comments. TenneT and Energinet would like to use this opportunity to thank all market participants that have participated in these workshops and provided comments for their active involvement.

The impact assessment will be the basis for the selection of a final countertrade model. It is expected that the suggested methodology will be released for into public consultation by the end of January 2018. The deadline for submission of a final methodology for relevant NRA approval is in March 2018.

Questions can be addressed to Katja Birr-Pedersen kbp@energinet.dk