White Papers

GOPACS

In the ever-evolving landscape of power markets, Etpa emerges as a pioneer with GOPACS—an innovative platform that is fundamentally reshaping capacity trading. Developed by Etpa and collectively owned by the Dutch TSO and all DSOs, GOPACS revolutionizes how energy market participants optimize their assets and contribute to a more sustainable and resilient energy grid.

GOPACS addresses critical challenges like grid congestion, particularly as renewable energy integration and electrification trends surge. By facilitating efficient capacity trading, GOPACS empowers participants to actively contribute to grid stability and the transition to a greener energy future.

The Ex-Post Market

Etpa's platform is the Netherlands' leading marketplace for Ex-Post trading, known for its strong liquidity and consistent growth. With a remarkable 111% Compound Annual Growth Rate in volume from 2020 to 2023, Etpa enhances trading opportunities and improves market efficiency. In 2022 alone, market participants saved over 30 million euros through Ex-Post trading on the platform, highlighting its critical role in the Dutch power market.

Ex-Post trading allows participants to adjust their energy positions post-delivery, reducing risks and costs from imbalances. This mechanism enables significant savings and optimizes market outcomes, making Etpa an essential tool for navigating the complexities of power trading in an evolving market.

Etpa's Power Wallet and Collateral-Free Trading

In the dynamic world of power trading, Etpa’s Power Wallet emerges as a groundbreaking solution that enhances trader liquidity, reduces costs, and minimizes counterparty risks. By eliminating the need for collaterals, Etpa’s Power Wallet simplifies transactions, ensuring swift and transparent settlements between market participants. This innovative platform offers a hassle-free, efficient trading experience, providing greater financial flexibility and significantly lowering cash requirements compared to competitors, setting a new standard for efficiency in energy trading.

The Shared Order Book

As the energy landscape continues to evolve, market participants are actively seeking better opportunities to navigate the increasingly complex dynamics of the market. This white paper explores the critical role of liquidity pooling in enhancing market efficiency, transparency, and accessibility, which in turn delivers substantial benefits to consumers within the energy sector. By thoroughly examining the interplay between market competition, liquidity pooling, and the resulting consumer advantages, this paper emphasizes the importance of optimizing market mechanisms to ensure a sustainable and resilient energy future. Through these insights, it becomes clear that effective market design is essential for fostering innovation, promoting fair competition, and ultimately driving the transition toward a more sustainable energy landscape.

The Delegated Trading Model

At Etpa, we are committed to removing barriers to innovative business models that address emerging needs in the energy market. The Delegated Trading Model empowers small players, newcomers, and service providers to optimize their trading activities by providing essential tools, resources, and support. This innovative framework allows participants to delegate trading responsibilities while retaining the flexibility to engage independently when desired. Through seamless integration and efficient processes, the Delegated Trading Model facilitates effective participation in complex power markets.

Electricity Marketplaces for IPPs

This whitepaper maps Dutch electricity marketplaces and roles, showing how IPPs can defend revenues amid falling prices and frequent negative hours. It explains access requirements and outlines spot, congestion, balancing, and Ex-Post settlement markets. A multi-market strategy (intraday optimisation, passive balancing, redispatch participation, and ancillary services) improves capture rates and reduces imbalance risk. Etpa supports entrants with compliant access, partnerships, and tools to unlock full market value.

The role of subsidies in the Netherlands

This whitepaper charts the Netherlands’ rapid shift from fossil-heavy generation to a renewables leader and shows how subsidies (SDE → SDE+ → SDE++) catalysed that change while grid congestion and proliferating negative-price hours have become binding constraints. It explains SDE++ as a one-way CfD with a capped baseline, tightening rules on negative-price hours and a move to 15-minute pricing; the scheme continues in 2026 (provisional €8bn) as policy pivots towards two-way CfDs aligned with EU market design. For IPPs, falling LCOEs, uncertain wholesale prices, lower capture rates, and upside-sharing under two-way CfDs compress returns.