A technical comparison of wholesale electricity markets in North America and Europe

Abstract This paper first compares wholesale electricity markets in North America with each other and then those in the Europe among themselves. After these comparisons of the markets in each continent, prevailing market design in North America and emerging market coupling in the Europe are chosen for further discussion. These representative markets of respective continents, as well as Nordic market are mutually compared. The Nordic market is separately identified in theses comparisons as it shares a number of characteristics with both, in addition to having some of its own distinct features. The comparison of markets is divided into four parts that cover generation scheduling, transmission arrangement, bids processing and general aspects. A general comparison of electricity markets in the two continents reveals that they are overwhelmingly different. Although there are exceptions, in general the market in Nordic countries is similar to the emerging market design for the Europe. These two markets are the same when comparing operations of generators and results of bids processing. However, in terms of transmission management the Nordic market mostly resembles the USA model but there is one exception. Finally, the process of bids handling has apparent similarities in all three markets but mathematical details vary.