The Czech electricity system switched from hourly to 15-minute trading intervals on 1 July 2024 - a week has passed since then and we can assess the current situation. By all accounts, the system seems to have coped well with the major changes so far.

Congratulations to OTE (Czech market operator) and ČEPS (Czech transmission system operator) for the successful transition to quarter-hourly contracts and the unification of deviation and counter-variation prices. Of course, we are only at the beginning and there are other influences (the start of the holidays, lower temperatures, stable winds from Germany), but the system seems more stable and less volatile than at the end of June.

If this trend is confirmed, it will fulfil one of the main objectives of these changes - a better commercial balance between the positions of the different players in the intraday market, leading to a more stable system and less need for activation of ancillary services. Instead of power fluctuations at the beginning and end of the clock, the flow of deviations is now smoother. For our customers with suitable assets (KGJ, BESS), this creates new opportunities to balance the system outside of ancillary services through trading or performance changes based on the deviation evolution of the whole system or portfolio.

Aggregators will need to go beyond simple ancillary services and effectively monetise client assets across different markets and trading opportunities.