WHAT ARE THEY?
Buy Now is an innovative and unique Dutch-style auction, enabling participants to instantly secure a predetermined amount of explicit Intraday capacity.
Developed by BritNed, and enabled by Empire, Buy Now is the first of its kind, and is available exclusively from BritNed.
Buy Now enables participants to acquire capacity before, during, and after the regular Intraday auctions, providing participants with additional flexibility and certainty of securing capacity.
HOW ARE THEY DIFFERENT?
Buy Now is the first interconnector auction of its kind and provides participants much greater flexibility, convenience, and control by facilitating trades much closer to the delivery period than has ever been possible previously.
Once the Buy Now offer is published, the price will automatically begin to decrease from the starting price in equal price steps, every 15 seconds.
The first participant that selects the purchase button on the Empire interface, or issues the respective API call, will acquire the offered capacity at its current price. The longer the auction continues without the capacity being purchased, the further the price will decrease.
Buy Now is poised to deliver unique advantages, including greater flexibility and convenience by enabling trading closer to the delivery period than previously possible. Participants will be able to acquire Transmission Rights before the regular Intraday auction, therefore securing capacity in advance, alongside acquiring Transmission Rights after the regular Intraday auction and during the open nomination gate.
Buy Now auctions are offered for every hour of the day, in both directions, providing there is sufficient Available Transfer Capacity (ATC). Auctions are aligned with BritNed’s four Intraday allocation windows but begin prior to and continue after the respective Intraday auction. Buy Now auctions open 30 minutes ahead the standard Intraday auctions and continue to run (if the capacity is not purchased), until just five minutes before the Nomination Gate closure of that hour.
WHEN ARE THEY?
Buy Now auctions will be offered for every hour of the day, in both directions, providing there is ATC available. The auctions will start to run for each of BritNed’s 4 Intraday allocation windows, prior to the respective Intraday auction.
The initial block will be for the first 8 hours of the day, the second and third blocks will each offer 4 hours, and the final 8 hours will be offered in the fourth block. The auctions will continue to run (if not purchased), until 5 minutes prior to the Nomination Gate closure of that hour.
For further information, check out the Buy Now section on our Auction FAQs page
KEY BENEFITS
Participants receive immediate notification of the successful acquisition of Transmission Rights
Participants can acquire capacity before, during, and after the regular Intraday auctions, up to five minutes before the Nomination Gate closure
Buy Now auction provides exact clarity on cost of securing Transmission Rights
Existing BritNed customers can participate, but like any other auction, Buy Now does require sufficient credit limit
Participate in Buy Now auctions either on Empire, or via API
How do I nominate capacity?
Any Buy Now capacity that is acquired in an auction can be nominated on Empire. If a customer does not nominate their transmission rights that they acquired in the auction, the right to use them will be lost after the closing of the relevant final intraday nomination gate. For an summary of the nomination gates, see our nominations overview.
