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Multi-market planning

The spot market is by far the largest market for the physical supply of electrical power.

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The spot market is a day-ahead market, but there are also markets that trade on an intra-day basis for the supply of reserves and balancing power, and for trading in bilateral contracts. The intention is that, within the electrical power system, trading in all these markets shall be linked together as part of the same production and transmission system. This requires multi-market planning.

Our work is in the following fields:

  • The detailed modelling of hydropower production systems. This is a prerequisite for the accurate representation of supply-side costs in the various markets.
  • Stochastic programming that facilitates an accurate representation of the market sequence and the information database on which market decisions are based.

Read about what we do on Hydropower production planning


We typically carry out the following types of project:

  • The modelling of reserve demand using the Grid Simulation Model. This is a fundamental power system model that enables simulation of both the electrical power system and reserve supply and prices
  • The supply of long- and short-term production planning tools in which spot market trading is optimised under the condition that agreed reserve obligations have been met
  • The development of functionality for the combined optimisation of spot market and reserve trading for long-term production planning (as part of the current research project "Integrating Balancing Markets in Hydropower Scheduling Methods")
  • The development of functionality for spot market bidding and short-term production planning taking into account the opportunity for trading in other short-term reserve and electrical power markets (as part of the current research project "Day-Ahead Bidding in Multiple Short-Term Markets")

Why choose SINTEF?
SINTEF is recognised both in Norway and internationally as a leader in the development of decision support tools for hydropower production planning. We have accumulated many decades of experience in the development of models – carried out in close consultation with players in the electricity sector. SINTEF's short-term production planning tool (SHOP) and long-term power system modelling tool (the Grid Simulation Model) are both used by producers responsible for about 80% of Norwegian electricity production.

Who are our clients?

  • Norwegian and international hydropower producers
  • Nordic transmission system operators and regulators
  • The sector organisation Energy Norway
  • Energy sector consultants

Projects/Software: