Long-term energy contracts have featured prominently in many decisions of the European Commission to support the opening of the electricity markets. Contracts were seen to foreclose the market hence the Commission comprehensively unwound pre-existing long-term contracts and formulated strict...

Gas-fired power plants constitute a direct and important link between the gas and the electricity sectors and thus between the Target Models for electricity and gas. As the need for a flexible operation of gas-fired power plants will increase in tomorrow's low-carbon power markets, so also will...

With increasing variability of demand and supply, transmission system operators (TSOs) across Europe adapt their internal processes and operational approaches. These processes comprise different interfaces with other market participants (e.g. via balancing markets, reserve procurement or NTC...

Strategic reserves are in principle well suited to address both generation adequacy and system security in power markets. Depending on the power system and on the network topology, a strategic reserve has to be designed to fulfill both objectives. For the design of a strategic reserve (SR) in...

Greenhouse gas emission benchmarks are widely implemented as a policy tool, as more countries move to implement carbon pricing mechanisms for industrial emissions. In particular, benchmarks are used to determine the level of free allowance allocation in emission trading schemes, which are...