EWOS: A sealed-bid auction system design and implementation for electricity interonnector capacity allocation

Electricity Transmission System Interconnectors are critical infrastructures at a national and European level, connecting different electricity areas. Phenomena of capacity demand congestion of the Transmission Interconnectors are handled with auction mechanisms. In this paper, we describe EWOS, a “sealed-bid, first price” method and auction system for electricity auctions. EWOS guarantees the auction security by implementing a transparent and verifiable by all process, based on public-key encryption and a two-phase time protocol. Additional and demanding critical system security and dependability properties are ensured with the use of security policy, and software assurance. EWOS method being secure, reliable and efficient, is used since 2006 for the conduct of numerous daily, monthly and yearly auctions for Transmission Interconnection capacity allocation.