Transmission capacity hoarding under REMIT
Capacity hoarding is acquiring interconnector capacity and not using it, or not using it effectively, so that others cannot. In implicit continuous allocation, trading with yourself across a border consumes the capacity exactly as a real cross-border trade does.
On this page
The definition
ACER lists transmission capacity hoarding as a practice that can give false or misleading signals or secure an artificial price: the acquisition of all or part of the available transmission capacity without using it, or without using it effectively. Its Guidance Note 1/2018 of 22 March 2018 covers it in detail.
“Transmission capacity hoarding: this practice involves (i) the acquisition of all or part of the available transmission capacity (ii) without using it or without using it effectively.”
The decisions
Energi Danmark accepted a fine in December 2018 for ten counts in 2015, and another in February 2025 for five instances and one attempt on 3 January 2020. In both, it bought and sold with itself across an interconnector so that its own trades used up the capacity, other participants could not use it, and a price difference between two bidding zones was created or widened.
What can explain it innocently
A participant with genuine positions in two zones can trade across a border and use capacity legitimately. The question is effective use: whether the capacity acquired matched a real need to move energy, or was taken to keep others off it. A trade between two of one participant's own orders across a border has no commercial counterparty, which is why it draws attention.
Decisions
- Energi Danmark fined again for interconnector capacity hoardingDenmark · Published 28 February 2025 · Electricity
- Energi Danmark fined for capacity hoarding on Nordic intraday (2018)Denmark · Published 7 December 2018 · Electricity
Sources
Sources read on 15 October 2026. This guide summarises the regulation and ACER’s non-binding guidance for orientation; it is not legal advice, and the decisions it cites are the deciding authorities’ findings, some of them under appeal.