Managing cross-border congestion in a european market environment: The French case

With the opening of the electricity markets in Europe through the EU96/92 Directive enforced on the 19 February 1999, the European market integration could not result into a copper plate. The variety of generation mixes among the fifteen member countries, and the state of interconnection ties between them, has resulted into regional markets interfaced by bottlenecks, rather than into a single market with a unique price. European Authorities have quickly understood this situation and defined a new European Regulation enforced since 1 July 2004, which promotes market based congestion management mechanisms, able to provide efficient use of the interconnection as well as appropriate market signals giving the right incentives for transmission or generation investments. The focus of this paper is the cross-border congestion management as practiced today by the French transmission system operator (RTE). In particular, the paper depicts the challenges of integration facing this part of the European electricity market, as well as the current methodologies in place to handle cross-border congestion. It also introduces the first projects, which have been completed or launched in cooperation with other transmission system operators and power exchanges