The System Operator Northern Ireland (SONI), in the presence of an Ofreg representative, conducted the second iteration of the North-South interconnector auction on Wednesday 1 December 2004.
One product was on offer, namely:
1-Year N-S export - 125MW
All available capacity was purchased for the above product.
The average successful bid price for:
1 year N-S export was £1,987.14
In line with regulatory precedents where circumstances have required this in both the Northern Ireland and Irish Republic’s wholesale electricity markets the outcome of the second round of the auction has been modified in order to facilitate the promotion of competition in the electricity market in the Irish Republic. Accordingly in the second round a limit of 40% of available capacity was placed on the amount of capacity which could be secured by any bidder.
Therefore the final position in relation to the North-South Interconnector Auction for Trading from 1st April 2005 is illustrated in the table below:
Company Year 1 Year 2 Total
Airtricity 45 0 45
Bord Gais 30 0 30
Energia 20 80 100
ESBIE 155 0 155
Overall Total 250 80 330
Further information on the background to the auction process can be found on this website. A consultation paper on interconnector trading was issued in August 2004. A decision paper followed this in November 2004. NIAER intends to publish a report in December 2004 giving more detail and background into the results of the auction.