Markedskobling

Markedskobling, or market coupling, is a mechanism for coordinating cross-border electricity trading by linking multiple national day-ahead markets into a single integrated market. It aims to use transmission capacity efficiently and determine energy prices across participating bidding zones. Markedskobling is a central element of the liberalised European electricity market and of efforts to achieve integrated cross-border price formation.

Operationally, market participants submit bids and offers for each bidding zone in the day-ahead horizon. A centralized clearing process treats interconnection lines between zones as constraints and solves an optimization problem that maximizes social welfare subject to generation, consumption, and capacity limits. The solution yields prices for each zone and flows on interconnectors, coupling national auctions into a coordinated process.

Regulatoryly, markedskobling is part of the European Union's Target Model for electricity markets and is implemented through price coupling of regions and, in many areas, flow-based market coupling. Operators collaborate to run day-ahead auctions, publish prices and interconnector utilization. The approach has been rolled out across large parts of Europe to improve price convergence and cross-border trade.

Benefits include improved economic efficiency and better use of grid capacity; limitations involve the need for accurate forecasts and the complexity of optimization under network constraints, as well as potential vulnerability to market power when cross-border capacity is tight.