The Director General today announced the results of the interconnector capacity auction process to allocate capacity on both the Moyle (Scotland–Northern Ireland) and North-South (NI-RoI) electricity interconnectors. Separate import and export capacities were auctioned for the Moyle link, and export capacity only for the N/S link. (Capacity allocation to export from RoI to NI is under the remit of ESBNG and CER in the Republic of Ireland.)
The capacity auction process was undertaken by System Operator Northern Ireland (SONI) with the approval of the Director General, and was designed to allocate third party rights to interconnector capacity.
The auction process allocated rights for each interconnector. There were four successful bidders.
Eirtricity obtained Moyle (import) capacity and N/S (export) capacity.
ESB obtained import capacity on the Moyle interconnector.
Energia (an NIE affiliate) obtained Moyle (import) capacity and N/S (export) capacity.
Scottish Power obtained import capacity on the Moyle interconnector.
All import capacity on the Moyle interconnector was allocated (275 MW in winter, 175 MW in summer). All the available three year Moyle import capacity (50 MW winter, 30 MW summer) was allocated. Green import capacity was also allocated.
Not all export capacity on the North/South interconnector was allocated. Both export and green export were under-subscribed.
No bids were received for Moyle Export (NI – Scotland) capacity.
Indicative Price ranges for capacity are :
The highest winning bid for Moyle import capacity (of any type) was £3001 per MW per month. The reserve price was £1500 per MW per month.
The highest winning bid for N/S export capacity of any type was £542 per MW per month. The reserve price was £300 per MW per month.
All capacity is sold on a pay as bid basis.
Notes
This auction, together with the earlier auction of the NIE contract with Scottish Power (“the MEE Auction” – please see press release dated 30 November 2001), will result in 300 MW of power coming from Scotland over the summer of 2002 and 400 MW over the winter of 2002/03. It will largely offset the partial closure of older power stations in NI and increase cross border trade in electricity. Industrial and commercial customers who are eligible to buy electricity in the competitive market should be able to obtain price reductions for the year 2002-03.