Nord Pool Spot has today, 4 April, signed an agreement with the Latvian independent system operator, AS "Augstsprieguma tīkls" (AST), making Nord Pool Spot the market operator of the new Latvian bidding area. The new Latvian Elspot* bidding area will be launched on Monday 3 June 2013.
Latvia will form a new day-ahead Elspot bidding area in the Nord Pool Spot market, connected to the Estonian and Lithuanian bidding areas, and also to Russia via the Latvian-Russian import and export areas. From 3 June implicit auctions will be implemented on all the Baltic internal borders.
The current setup with import and export handling between Latvia and Estonia through the ELE bidding area will close down with the opening of the Latvian bidding area. Thereafter, dedicated portfolios for Latvian/Lithuanian cross border trade will no longer be needed.
The trading currency in the Latvian bidding area will be EUR.
Commenting on the final agreement to launch the new bidding area, Nord Pool Spot CEO Mikael Lundin said: "Nord Pool Spot is pleased to confirm our plan to launch a day-ahead bidding area in Latvia. This is completing our long term goal of creating a Baltic power market connected to the Nordic region,and at the same time meeting the goal of the European Union to achieve integration of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia with EU energy networks and markets.”

* Elspot is Nord Pool Spot’s day-ahead market for trading power. It is an auction based market for delivery of power the following day.