Key facts: Austria
- Support scheme
- EAG market premium (Marktprämie) via tenders and applications; direct marketing required
- Balancing responsibility
- Bilanzgruppenverantwortlicher registered with APCS (balance group coordinator)
- Transmission system operator
- APG
- Exchanges
- EXAA day-ahead · EPEX SPOT Austria day-ahead and intraday
- Settlement interval
- 15 min
- Currency
- EUR
- Bidding zones
- AT (single zone since the DE-AT split in 2018)
The Austrian power market for renewables
Austria is a hydro-dominated system that has set itself a 100 percent renewable electricity target for 2030, driving rapid solar and wind additions. Since the separation from the German bidding zone in 2018, Austrian prices trade at a spread to Germany that depends on cross-border capacity, Alpine hydro and the Swiss and Italian borders.
The grid operator APG procures balancing energy with 15-minute resolution, and the market shares the German 15-minute settlement culture.
EAG market premium, APCS balance groups and APG rules
The Erneuerbaren-Ausbau-Gesetz replaced feed-in tariffs with a market premium: plants sell on the market and receive a sliding premium to a reference value awarded by tender or application. Direct marketing is therefore the standard route for new wind, solar and small hydro.
All production must belong to a balance group under the clearing agent APCS, whose responsible party carries the imbalance costs set by APG. Batteries and flexible hydro can enter APG's FCR, aFRR and mFRR tenders.
EXAA, EPEX SPOT Austria and cross-border trading
Austria has two day-ahead venues, the Vienna-based EXAA auction and EPEX SPOT's coupled auction, plus continuous intraday trading. Liquidity is good and the DE-AT spread offers intraday arbitrage for a trader active in both zones.
Imbalance settlement every 15 minutes and APG's balancing-energy prices make forecast quality the main cost lever for solar and wind portfolios.
What SAMAWATT offers in Austria
SAMAWATT trades Austrian solar, wind and hydro on EXAA and EPEX SPOT, provides balance-group services and aggregates assets into a VPP for intraday re-trading and balancing-market access.
Because we also trade in Germany and Switzerland, Austrian assets are optimised against the full Alpine cross-border picture.
- EXAA Day-Ahead
- EPEX Intraday (IDM)
- APCS balancing
- VPP aggregation
- Intraday re-trading
- Cross-border CH/DE
- Imbalance management
Austria market: frequently asked questions
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