Italy’s TIDE power market reform implements 15-minute trading in Intraday market, creating additional opportunities for renewables and BESS
On 1 January 2025 Italy’s TIDE reform entered its preliminary phase, implementing a slew of changes meant to align its power market to the rest of the EU, including adding 15-minute settlement periods to the country’s Intraday market.
Currently, the Italian Intraday market (MI) operates through a combination of auction-based sessions (MI-A) and continuous trading phases (MI-XBID). The three MI-A sessions occur after the Day-Ahead market (MGP) and run from D-1 (the day before delivery) until 10am on D (the delivery day). Meanwhile, MI-XBID operates in three continuous trading phases, running after the end of the first MI-A and until H-1 (1 hour before delivery).
With the changes introduced by TIDE, MI-A auctions have now shifted entirely to 15-minute settlement periods or MTUs (Market Time Units), while MI-XBID has seen the addition of quarter-hour (QH) alongside full-hour (FH) MTUs.
According to market operator GME’s January report, volumes traded on the ID market declined by nearly 25% for the two weeks after implementation of the reform. Traded volumes averaged 0.5 TWh in weeks 1 and 2 of 2025, before returning nearer pre-TIDE levels over the rest of January. Much of this recovery is attributable to MI-A volumes however, while MI-XBID have not fully recovered. While FH products remain the dominant MI-XBID volumes, market actors have shown increased willingness to engage with QH products as time progresses.
The MI market is likely to continue seeing varying improvement of liquidity as market actors gain confidence in managing the new products. This is because the higher resolution of MTUs leaves the door open for more price volatility within the same time frame. However on the flip side, the introduction of quarter-hourly products is likely to benefit renewables, as these will now be allowed to follow forecasts and adjust their positions nearer to real-time.
According to Emma Romei, Quant Advisor at Pexapark: “The change in granularity is likely to increase price volatility in the MI-A and MI-XBID markets, widening the spreads that a BESS will be able to capture going forward, and thus improving their business case. This effect might become particularly pronounced in the MI-XBID near delivery, where increased volatility driven by forecast updates for renewable generation and adjustments close to real-time can create relevant arbitrage opportunities for BESS operators.”
With this change, Italy joins the majority of EU markets in adopting quarter-hour MTUs, with Spain and Greece expected to do the same in March and June 2025 respectively. GME has indicated that the shift to quarter-hour MTUs for the Day-Ahead market is likely to happen in June 2025.
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