Energy
The Swedish and European power market, explained for engineers crossing in.
A short, scenario-driven library. Starts from what a kilowatt-hour actually is, ends at reading a Nord Pool day and explaining why SE4 spiked. Written from real working experience in the Swedish system. No jargon without a plain definition next to it.
Foundations
13 topicsThe energy market at a glance
The whole market on one page, in plain words.
kWh: power vs energy
The unit you trade. Easy to mix up. Worth getting right on day one.
The one weird rule: balance every second
The single rule that makes electricity different from every other product.
Frequency: the heartbeat
One number that tells you, in real time, if the grid is healthy.
Reserves: what catches the gap
Three layers of safety, each faster than the next. Where most of the real work happens.
From generator to your socket
The full journey of one kWh, and why the bill has two halves.
Why we ship power at high voltage
One equation, told in plain words.
Who is who in the Swedish market
Same brand often plays three different roles. This is the map.
The four Swedish bidding zones
Same country, same hour, different price. Here is why.
Merit order: how the price gets set
The last bid accepted sets the price for everyone. One picture explains the rest.
The daily clock: D-1, D, D+10
Plan yesterday. Deliver today. Settle next week. Every single day.
Reading the data: load curves and capacity factor
Two charts and one number you will see every day.
Storage on the grid: a fast battery vs a big battery
Same name. Two different products. The trick is in the duration.
Actors
6 topicsSvenska kraftnät: what the TSO actually does
One state-owned company, three big jobs, no day off.
DSO: tariffs and the local monopoly
You cannot choose your DSO. Here is what they do, and why their bill is half of yours.
The BRP: where the buck stops
The one role newcomers always miss. Every MWh sits inside some BRP.
The retailer: contracts, switching, churn
No wires. No plants. Just a contract between you and the wholesale market.
The aggregator: pooling small flexibility
The newest role in the market. Bundles 10,000 small assets into one big bid.
Ei: what the regulator decides
Approves what DSOs can charge. Polices the rest. The most consequential agency you have never heard of.
Wholesale day-ahead
8 topicsNord Pool: the exchange itself
The Nordic power exchange. The original one. Still the centre of the day for most traders.
How the day-ahead auction clears
EUPHEMIA is the algorithm. The idea behind it is simple.
Bid types: hourly, block, complex
Why a coal plant cannot just submit a price. The bid types that make the auction realistic.
Why hydro usually sets the Nordic price
Water is free. So why is the hydro bid not zero? Because the operator is a scheduler, not a producer.
How cross-zonal capacity is allocated
The wire between two zones has a limit. That limit is the most-fought-over number in the European market.
SDAC: pan-European price coupling
How 25+ countries clear at the same time and the Swedish price ends up linked to the German one.
Reading one Nord Pool day, hour by hour
A guided walk through 24 hours of real prices. What the shape tells you.
Common day-ahead patterns
The shapes that repeat. Once you know them, the surprises become smaller.
Wholesale intraday
4 topicsWhy intraday exists
Day-ahead made a plan. The plan is now wrong. This is where you fix it.
XBID: continuous trading across borders
The Pan-European matching engine that quietly clears trades all day, every day.
Intraday for a wind portfolio
One full day in the life of a 200 MW wind trader. The wind changes plans three times.
SIDC: the European intraday platform
The bigger umbrella over XBID. One continent. One order book per hour per zone.
Balancing
8 topicsFCR-N: holding the line in normal operation
The smallest, fastest, most-used reserve. The one keeping 50 Hz tight right now.
FCR-D up and down: catching the big dips
The big-event reserve. Twice as big as FCR-N. The home market of every grid battery in Sweden.
aFRR: the automatic restoration loop
Slower than FCR. Bigger than FCR. The actual pull back to 50 Hz.
mFRR: the manual reserve
The slow, deep reserve. Operator-activated. Takes over from aFRR for the long haul.
Imbalance settlement: how BRPs pay or get paid
The bill that arrives 10 days after every delivery hour. The thing every BRP is optimising for.
Single-price imbalance: the European model
Long BRPs and short BRPs use the same price. One simple rule. Sharp consequences.
Reserve qualification: proving the asset works
Before any asset can bid into FCR or aFRR, Svenska kraftnät tests it. Most newcomers miss this step until it bites them.
Batteries in FCR-D: the first real Swedish business case
Why almost every grid battery in Sweden bids the same product. And why that is changing.
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