Latvia electricity market

Latvia. Status: operational; synchronised with Continental Europe since 2025-02-09.

Wholesale design: Nord Pool day-ahead and intraday bidding zone with national imbalance settlement and participation in the common Baltic balancing energy and capacity markets.

Market type
National market
Operators
Augstsprieguma tīkls · Nord Pool
Dispatch model
Zonal exchange trading plus TSO balancing activation.
Pricing granularity
single bidding-zone price; 15-minute market time unit
Nominal frequency
50 Hz
Where energy trades

Where does energy trade in Latvia electricity market?

Energy in Latvia electricity market trades in 4 layers: day-ahead, intraday, balancing energy and baltic balancing capacity.

What a battery can sell

What ancillary services can a battery sell in Latvia electricity market?

Latvia electricity market has 5 ancillary-service products, across 3 families — frequency containment, automatic frequency restoration and manual frequency restoration: Baltic automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve capacity — downward, Baltic automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve capacity — upward, Baltic Frequency Containment Reserve capacity, Baltic manual Frequency Restoration Reserve capacity — downward, Baltic manual Frequency Restoration Reserve capacity — upward. Response timing, direction and eligibility for each are in the table below; a product's full record lists the official sources behind it.

Every value below comes from the official sources listed in that product's full record. Most products cite more than one, and the published sources do not say which of them states each individual value, so the binding is to the product's record rather than to a single document. A missing line means the source does not state that value — never that the value is zero.

Scroll the table sideways for the rest of the columns →

5 ancillary-service products in Latvia electricity market, grouped into 3 families. Each row runs left to right through one product's life: how it activates, how quickly it has to respond, how long it has to keep delivering, and how it is bought.
Service How it activates Response Sustained delivery Procurement
Frequency containment
Baltic Frequency Containment Reserve capacity FCR symmetric operational in the common Baltic daily balancing-capacity market Response type automatic local-frequency-proportional response Trigger continuous response to frequency deviation under Continental Europe FCR rules Full activation 30 s As published on 5 February 2025 29 MW (2025-02-05) first BBCM delivery day; Baltic total for each bidding period Bought daily day-ahead for the next 24-hour delivery day Pricing design common Baltic balancing-capacity auction Counted as the Baltic LFC block total for each bidding period, not one country’s share
Full record for Baltic Frequency Containment Reserve capacity — page or table locator recorded
What it is for

Contain frequency deviations in the Continental Europe synchronous area and Baltic LFC block.

Where it sits

Baltic common balancing-capacity procurement

Published checkpoints

Continental Europe, full activation: 30 s

Checkpoint recap

Full activation 30 s

What the source does not state

The source states the full-activation requirement and a procurement volume. It does not state how long delivery has to be sustained.

Sources
Automatic frequency restoration
Baltic automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve capacity — downward aFRR down downward introduced after Baltic PICASSO connection in 2025; absent from the first delivery day Response type automatic central activation Trigger LFC-block control need; not a single public frequency threshold Full activation 5 min Reported, not a current requirement 90–120 MW (2025) indicative symmetric aFRR share of long-term Baltic FRR dimensioning, varying by time of day; not a single auction award Bought daily day-ahead for the next delivery day Pricing design common Baltic balancing-capacity auction Counted as the Baltic LFC block’s dimensioned requirement, not one country’s share
Full record for Baltic automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve capacity — downward — page or table locator recorded
What it is for

Automatically restore Baltic LFC-block balance and release FCR in the downward direction.

Where it sits

Baltic common balancing-capacity procurement

Published checkpoints

EU standard product, full activation: 5 min

Checkpoint recap

Full activation 5 min

What the source does not state

The source states the full-activation requirement and a procurement volume. It does not state how long delivery has to be sustained.

Sources
Baltic automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve capacity — upward aFRR up upward introduced after Baltic PICASSO connection in 2025; absent from the first delivery day Response type automatic central activation Trigger LFC-block control need; not a single public frequency threshold Full activation 5 min Reported, not a current requirement 90–120 MW (2025) indicative symmetric aFRR share of long-term Baltic FRR dimensioning, varying by time of day; not a single auction award Bought daily day-ahead for the next delivery day Pricing design common Baltic balancing-capacity auction Counted as the Baltic LFC block’s dimensioned requirement, not one country’s share
Full record for Baltic automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve capacity — upward — page or table locator recorded
What it is for

Automatically restore Baltic LFC-block balance and release FCR in the upward direction.

Where it sits

Baltic common balancing-capacity procurement

Published checkpoints

EU standard product, full activation: 5 min

Checkpoint recap

Full activation 5 min

What the source does not state

The source states the full-activation requirement and a procurement volume. It does not state how long delivery has to be sustained.

Sources
Manual frequency restoration
Baltic manual Frequency Restoration Reserve capacity — downward mFRR down downward operational in the common Baltic daily balancing-capacity market Response type scheduled or direct activation of a balancing-energy bid Trigger TSO activation based on LFC-block imbalance and reserve need Full activation 750 s Minimum obligation at least 5 min As published on 5 February 2025 498 MW (2025-02-05) first BBCM delivery day; Baltic total for each bidding period Bought daily day-ahead for the next 24-hour delivery day Pricing design common Baltic balancing-capacity auction Counted as the Baltic LFC block total for each bidding period, not one country’s share
Full record for Baltic manual Frequency Restoration Reserve capacity — downward — page or table locator recorded
What it is for

Restore Baltic LFC-block balance and release faster reserves in the downward direction.

Where it sits

Baltic common balancing-capacity procurement

Bought in blocks of

15 min

Published checkpoints

EU standard product, maximum full activation: 750 s

Checkpoint recap

Full activation 750 s · Minimum sustained 5 min

What the source does not state

The source states the full-activation requirement, a minimum delivery period, and a procurement volume. It does not state a maximum duration.

Sources
Baltic manual Frequency Restoration Reserve capacity — upward mFRR up upward operational in the common Baltic daily balancing-capacity market Response type scheduled or direct activation of a balancing-energy bid Trigger TSO activation based on LFC-block imbalance and reserve need Full activation 750 s Minimum obligation at least 5 min As published on 5 February 2025 730 MW (2025-02-05) first BBCM delivery day; Baltic total for each bidding period Bought daily day-ahead for the next 24-hour delivery day Pricing design common Baltic balancing-capacity auction Counted as the Baltic LFC block total for each bidding period, not one country’s share
Full record for Baltic manual Frequency Restoration Reserve capacity — upward — page or table locator recorded
What it is for

Restore Baltic LFC-block balance and release faster reserves in the upward direction.

Where it sits

Baltic common balancing-capacity procurement

Bought in blocks of

15 min

Published checkpoints

EU standard product, maximum full activation: 750 s

Checkpoint recap

Full activation 750 s · Minimum sustained 5 min

What the source does not state

The source states the full-activation requirement, a minimum delivery period, and a procurement volume. It does not state a maximum duration.

Sources
Getting paid to exist

Does Latvia electricity market have a capacity mechanism?

No central capacity market. Latvia electricity market has 1 capacity/adequacy arrangement — Baltic balancing-capacity procurement — and it works differently. Responsibility sits with Elering, Augstsprieguma tīkls and Litgrid.

Baltic balancing-capacity procurement

operational since 2025-02-04

Daily common procurement of FCR, aFRR and mFRR availability for system balancing; it is not a generation-adequacy capacity market.

daily day-ahead common Baltic balancing-capacity auction

Responsibility
Elering, Augstsprieguma tīkls and Litgrid
Unit of obligation
MW of prequalified balancing capacity by product, direction and bidding period
Auction held in 2025
No () — Daily balancing-capacity auctions began in 2025, but they are ancillary-service procurement and do not count as capacity-adequacy auctions.
Revenue routes

Merchant revenue routes

  • day-ahead energy
  • intraday energy
  • balancing energy
  • balancing capacity
Caveats

Technical notes

Fifteen minutes is the market time unit in pricing granularity. The cited sources do not state a settlement interval, so none is given.

Where this comes from

Official sources

Rules

Service specification

Market explainer

Capacity-mechanism explainer

Methodology

Supporting evidence

Current as of · from the Global Electricity Market Catalogue v1.2.0 (compiled to , CC BY 4.0, rendered here with wording edited for readability). Facts belong to the linked official authorities; verify the current rules before design or bidding decisions.

Questions

Common questions about Latvia electricity market

Who operates Latvia electricity market?
Latvia electricity market covers Latvia and is operated by Augstsprieguma tīkls and Nord Pool.
Was a qualifying capacity event held in Latvia electricity market in 2025?
No. Baltic balancing-capacity procurement: no qualifying 2025 event is recorded. Daily balancing-capacity auctions began in 2025, but they are ancillary-service procurement and do not count as capacity-adequacy auctions.
How is energy traded, priced and settled in Latvia electricity market?
Latvia electricity market: Nord Pool day-ahead and intraday bidding zone with national imbalance settlement and participation in the common Baltic balancing energy and capacity markets. Dispatch — Zonal exchange trading plus TSO balancing activation; pricing granularity — single bidding-zone price; 15-minute market time unit.
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