Public procurement notice: Modification Of A Contract/Concession During Its Term
Published: 2023-08-01
Buyer: EirGrid plc
Country: IE
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated procedure
CPV classification: 48700000 | 48800000 | 48812000: Financial information systems | 66151000 | 66151100

Technical requirements: The procurement required the tender to provide services to allow SEMOpx, as a designated NEMO, to operate the ex-ante day ahead and intraday markets in compliance with the Capacity Allocation and Congestion Management regulation (CACM (EU) 2015/1222). These services include;
•	operation of a service help desk to provide urgent operational support for ex-ante trading on a 24x7 basis and non-urgent member queries during office hours
This framework was set up for a potential 10 years on the basis that it would take up to 2 years to set up, have 4 years of operation with the option to extend for an additional 4 years
The procurement required the tender to provide services to allow SEMOpx, as a designated NEMO, to operate the ex-ante day ahead and intraday markets in compliance with the Capacity Allocation and Congestion Management regulation (CACM (EU) 2015/1222). These services include;
•	operation of a service help desk to provide urgent operational support for ex-ante trading on a 24x7 basis and non-urgent member queries during office hours
The current contract is due to expiry in 2026. Based on current market conditions, EirGrid and SONI envisage that the existing ex ante market auctions will continue to be necessary until, at least, 2033.
The nature of the SEM market design and market systems means that all 61+ market participants trade in the ex-ante markets using the two existing trading systems (one for auctions and another for continuous trading). Market participants have invested heavily in IT systems to interface to these trading systems through APIs or directly with the trading applications and to manage the specific proprietary file formats of the bids, results and other data provided from/to these trading systems. This is also true for the clearing and settlement systems run by the clearing house. In additional the market participants also have setup and now manage complex and stringent financial and contractual requirements with the central counter party and their clearing banks. Trades in excess of 11 billion Euro per year are matched in the trading systems and settled through the central counter party.
The System Operators (SONI and EirGrid) and the Market Operator (SEMO) have also implemented and maintain complex interfaces and specific proprietary file formats to exchange necessary market data with the service providers for the ex-ante markets. These data exchanges are critical to the proper functioning of the SEM wholesale electricity market.
The above information highlights the reliance on the current service providers as a systemic component for the orderly and secure running of the SEM ex-ante markets.
Any need to change the provider of these ex-ante market services would create massive disruption and cost to the entire industry – including market participants, system operators and market operators.
Over sixty SEM participants currently trade using two EPEX- operated systems - ETS (for auctions) and M7 (for continuous trading). Each participant has invested heavily in IT systems to interface both with these two trading systems and with the clearing and settlement systems run by ECC. SONI, EirGrid and the market operator, SEMO, have also implemented and maintain complex interfaces and specific proprietary file formats to exchange necessary market data with EPEX and ECC. These exchanges are critical to the proper functioning of the SEM. Accordingly, the relevant services cannot be provided by a provider other than EPEX/ECC due to the fact that they operate proprietary trading systems which currently interface with the IT systems of the respective participants, EirGrid, SONI and the market operator. Changing to a new provider would require a new interface thus imposing significant costs on each of the relevant stakeholders.


Winner: EPEX SPOT