Developing a simulator for the Greek electricity market

Following the liberalization of the Greek electricity market, the Greek Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) undertook the design and implementation of a simulator for the wholesale market and its interactions with the Natural Gas Transportation System. The simulator consists of several interacting modules representing all key market operations and dynamics including (i) day-ahead scheduling based on bids of market participants, (ii) natural gas system constraints, (iii) unplanned variability of loads and available capacity driven either by uncertain stochastic outcomes or deliberate participant schedule deviations, (iv) real time dispatch, and (v) financial settlement of day ahead and real time schedule differences. The modules are integrated into one software package capable of simulating all market dynamics, deliberate or probabilistic, and their interactions across all relevant time scales. The intended use of the simulator is to elaborate on and allow RAE to investigate the impact of participant decision strategies on market outcomes. The ultimate purpose is to evaluate the effectiveness of Market Rules, whether existing or contemplated, in providing incentives for competitive behaviour and in discouraging gaming and market manipulation. This paper describes the development of the simulator relative to the current Greek Electricity Market Design and key contemplated revisions.