Participation of German capacities in the Belgian capacity mechanism

As part of the "Clean Energy Package" (CEP) legislative package, the EU Commission has defined requirements for both the introduction of capacity mechanisms (CRM) and their design. According to the provisions of the Electricity Market Regulation (Art. 26 of Regulation (EU) 2019/943), capacity mechanisms must be opened up for the cross-border participation of foreign plants. Since 2024, plant operators in Germany have had the option of cross-border participation in the Belgian capacity mechanism.

The timeline for 2024 is as follows:

For the first delivery year 2025/26, it was possible for interested system operators with a connection to the transmission grid of the transmission system operators to apply for participation with the Belgian transmission system operator (Elia) until 12.04.2024. An overview of the framework conditions for participation and the individual processes can be found here (XB CRM OnePager).

Elia has published the design note for 2024 (link) on its "Adequacy Working Group" website (link). This explains the basic functions of the Belgian CRM.

Furthermore, Elia has already offered general and detailed information sessions to explain the mechanism and features and provide a comprehensive understanding of them. The content presented can be viewed on the ELIA homepage (link). Here you will also find further information on the Belgian capacity market and cross-border participation.

Information on the next auction in 2025 will also be announced on this page in good time. The timeline will be based on the milestones from 2024.

If you have any questions, your transmission system operators will be happy to answer them via the following e-mail inboxes

xb-capacitymechanism@50Hertz.com

xb-capacitymechanism@Amprion.net

xb-capacitymechanism-de@Tennet.eu

xb-capacitymechanism@Transnetbw.de