Curtailment of bids
In those situations where it is impossible for supply and demand to meet at the power exchange because supply far exceeds demand, one of the options avail-able to the power exchange is to curtail sales bids on a pro rata basis. As a re-sult, the electricity price, in those hours, will be identical to the current price bottom in the spot market on the power exchange.

These hours most often occur in periods when wind power production is high and consumption low. Curtailment of sales bids could potentially occur at night during winter and summer.

After the introduction of negative spot prices in November 2009, no curtailment of sales bids in the electricity market is expected as electricity producers will introduce additional flexibility in electricity generation in future and adapt elec-tricity generation to consumption to an even larger extent than today.    

Additional information is available on Nord Pool Spot's website.

Countertrade
Energinet.dk uses countertrade in the electricity market in case of congestion in the transmission grid ('bottlenecks'). The effect of these 'bottlenecks' is elimi-nated by - on the one hand - implementing a purchase, and - on the other hand - conducting a corresponding sale. Energinet.dk will pay the expenses in connec-tion with the countertrade.

By using countertrade, Energinet.dk reduces or prevents any negative side ef-fects of grid congestion for the players in the electricity market, thus providing a stable framework for the electricity market.

Energinet.dk uses countertrade to maintain the trading capacities announced to Nord Pool Spot and to find the market price in situations when it would other-wise have been impossible.

Normally, Energinet.dk uses countertrade in the following situations to guaran-tee that Nord Pool Spot trades can be realised – the so-called 36-hour guaran-tee.

Countertrade is used to:

1. Maintain announced trading capacity
If unforeseen incidents occur in Energinet.dk's area, in the other neighbouring countries or in the interconnection between these countries after 11.00 on the day before the day of operation, it may be impossible to physically maintain the trading capacity allocated to Nord Pool Spot.

In such situations, Energinet.dk and its TSO counterparts in the neighbouring countries ensure by using countertrade that trades already concluded by players in Nord Pool Spot's Elspot market can be maintained. This is par for the course in the Nordic countries when it comes to handling trading in Nord Pool Spot's Elspot market.

2. Award extra trading capacity to find a market price
In some situations it is impossible for Nord Pool Spot to find the market price in one of several Elspot areas. If this happens, Energinet.dk usually provides Nord Pool Spot with the extra power required by increasing the import trading capac-ity on the Nordic interconnections and the Kontek interconnection through  countertrade.