General

The demand for capacity at the transmission interconnections between Austria and the Czech Republic, Hungaria, Slovenia, Italy and Switzerland is usually much higher than the available capacity. In order to obtain maximum transparency in the allocation of this transmission capacity and to avoid discrimination in allocating capacities, auctions for allocating transmission capacities on these cross border interconnectors will be held. The auction covers the reservation of available capacity at the transmission interconnections.

The auctioning of the reservation of the capacity aims at providing a transparent method of congestion management.

The responsible transmission system operator will carry out the auctions of the yearly and monthly available transmission capacities for both sides. The auctions will be conducted by the Auction Office (since 2011 by CASC and CAO) on behalf of the TSO on a yearly, monthly and daily level .

The Auction Offices (CASC and CAO) inform the market participants about the available capacity for the reservation for the yearly and the monthly as well as the daily allocation procedure on its website.

Yearly Auction
The auction in which the reservation of capacity for annual electricity transports from January 1 through December 31 of the following calendar year is auctioned.

Monthly Auction
The auction in which the reservation of capacity for monthly electricity transports from the first through the last day of the following calendar month is auctioned.

Daily Auction:
The auction in which the reservation of capacity for daily electricity transports from the first through the last hour of the respective calendar day is auctioned.

Auction 1 deals with the import capacity to Austria
Auction 2 deals with the export capacity from Austria

Generally, the capacity is offered in the auctions in form of the following products:

Baseload
Capacity from 00:00 to 24:00 (CET) , Monday to Sunday.

Peakload
Capacity from 08:00 to 20:00 (CET) commencing on January 2, 2007; work days from Monday to Friday except public holidays in the specified Auction Rules.

The capacity will be obtained for every hour of the selected period.

The auction procedures and regulations are construed in accordance with the regulations set out by the respective law and by the responsible Regulatory Authorities. The auctions deal with the reservation of capacities at the common interconnection congestion lines.

Successful bidders are only entitled to assert their right of making available the reserved capacity according to these regulations. Through the purchase of reservation of capacity, a successful bidder will become entitled to use the reserved capacity independent of the actual use and physical flows. Pursuant to applicable Austrian law APG may be forced to refuse demands for services of electricity transport due to domestic requirements in order to fulfill domestic demands.