Rethinking short-term electricity market design: Options for market segment integration

Electricity market design varies across countries throughout Europe. Thereby the provision and remuneration of flexibility always takes place in short-term market segments. Taking into consideration the fundamental changes of the power system, this paper discusses options for the future short-term market design. We develop a conceptual basis for a possible integration of currently separated short-term market segments. Market segment integration (MSI) is defined as the interaction between and possible combination of market segments, i.e. intraday market (ID), congestion management (CM) and balancing market (BA). The paper especially focusses on two options, namely an integrated BA and CM market and an integrated ID and CM market. For these options we determine the basic design features. We propose a criteria catalogue which allows the evaluation of the market design options. Based on several criteria we discuss possible positive and negative consequences as well as potential solutions.