Energy: a historic turning point in the European spot market!

On Tuesday, a historic milestone was reached: the shift from hourly intervals to 15-minute intervals.

• A change designed to better match the reality of production and consumption, and to integrate the intermittency of renewables.

• Economically, this new time step will generate a more precise price signal, encouraging players to adapt more efficiently.

From now on, prices will be set every 15 minutes:
– more pronounced variations
– shorter price spikes
– and potentially lower intraday volumes, especially at the first auction

But this change is not without risk: moving from 24 to 96 price blocks makes the work of exchanges and operators more complex, with IT systems needing to adapt to this increased flow.

Moreover, this breakdown could fragment liquidity: fewer participants per quarter-hour means lower volumes per block.

Since yesterday, volatility has increased significantly, but for experts, this is a temporary effect: the market should gradually adapt.

For example, on Tuesday, October 1 at 7 p.m., SPOT prices in Germany reached €408/MWh before dropping to €253/MWh 45 minutes later.

This represents a major change that the market and participants must absorb.

The coupling manager also points out that this new time step generated a massive influx of orders as early as Tuesday, showing the scale of this change for participants.

A decisive step toward greater flexibility… and a real test for the integration of renewables in Europe.