The Czech and the Slovak transmission system operators launched on 19 January 2012 a test phase of the “e-GCC Project” for cross-border exchanges of regulation energy. The project team’s work, carried out for almost a year, has thus been completed and e-GCC normal operation is envisaged to commence within two months.

The aim of the two transmission system operators’ cooperation is to avoid the supply of regulation energy in opposite directions. This will lead to reduction of ancillary service activation, especially secondary control power ancillary service (it is expected that tens of percent’s of the amount of secondary control energy to be activated will be saved). The non-activated secondary control ancillary services can be used to settle high-level imbalance between supply and demand in the power systems involved. The main benefit of the e-GCC is therefore the enhancement of transmission system operational security.

Mr. Michal Pokorný, Member of SEPS’s Board of Directors, said: “This project is yet another example of ongoing mutually beneficial cooperation in electricity trading and the operation of the Czech and the Slovak power systems which commenced in 2009 with the coupling of day-ahead electricity markets.”

Energy exchanges in the e-GCC are carried out in real time and respond to the current situation in the power systems concerned. The transfer capacity of the Czech-Slovak interconnector remaining after the intra-day allocation closure is used for regulation energy exchanges. Cross-border capacity available for Czech and Slovak market players is thus not restricted and, at the same time, high-level transmission system operational security is ensured.

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