Impact of cross-border electricity trading on market participants

In the paper, it is shown how electricity trading, congestion and transit is influencing on market participants in each area. Market participants are generators, suppliers (consumers), traders and TSOs. It is shown an example with four connected areas, where this benefits and losses for the involved parties are presented. Although there are still imperfect markets in Europe, we assume some prerequisites: the electricity market is fully opened, there is one power exchange in the region, a TSO model is implemented and there may be different price areas. Our findings illustrate that a coordinated trading mechanism (congestion, transit) leads to increase of market competition, increase of interconnection usage and reduction of market player risk as well as generation of revenue in market based methods. Strong cross-border interconnections have direct economic benefits and decreases generators possibility to exercise market power, increases the security of supply for all trading partners, and leads to more stable electricity prices and thereby lower risk on investments.