Spot Markets Only

The Spot Markets Only Trading Model focuses exclusively on liquid, exchange-traded spot products — Day-Ahead and Intraday — capturing the full spot price spread without any exposure to ancillary or capacity markets.

Strategy Overview

  • Market Participation:
    • Full Day-Ahead market participation
    • Intraday market participation (Hourly, Quarter-Hourly & Financial Trades)
    • No FCR, aFRR, or mFRR capacity participation
    • No imbalance energy participation

Key Features

  • Combines Day-Ahead and Intraday trading to capture the complete spot market price spread
  • Full BESS power capacity is available for Day-Ahead optimization, with no allocation reserved for ancillary markets
  • Uses hourly and quarter-hourly Intraday products, plus Intraday financial trades, to continuously re-optimize the schedule as forecasts update
  • Excludes ancillary and capacity markets entirely, avoiding prequalification requirements and availability obligations
  • Provides a clear view of the pure arbitrage value achievable across the Day-Ahead and Intraday markets combined

Risk Assessment

  • Risk Level: Medium Risk
  • Strategy Type: Active Spot-Market Trading Strategy
  • Objective: Maximize revenue captured across Day-Ahead and Intraday markets while remaining free of ancillary market complexity

Spot markets — Day-Ahead and Intraday — are the most liquid and transparent power markets, with prices driven directly by supply and demand fundamentals. By trading across both, this model captures price movements that occur between Day-Ahead gate closure and real-time delivery, without taking on the operational and regulatory overhead of ancillary service provision.

The Spot Markets Only configuration for BESS (or BESS combined with other assets such as PV or wind) optimizes charging and discharging across Day-Ahead and Intraday timeframes, continuously updating positions as Intraday prices move. This gives a clear picture of the incremental value Intraday trading adds on top of a pure Day-Ahead strategy, while keeping the analysis focused solely on spot-market fundamentals.

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