Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark together make up a single electricity market. In the Nordic electricity market, the market price of electricity is established at the electricity exchange. As the transmission system operator, Fingrid has a role as a developer of market-focused rules for the physical electricity market.
As a part of this role, Fingrid has an ownership of 20 per cent in Nord Pool Spot AS, the Nordic electricity exchange for physical electricity trade. It quotes the day-ahead market price for each hour of the day on the basis of purchase and sales bids. About 72 % of electricity is traded through spot market in the Nordic area while the rest is based on bilateral transactions (in 2009).
Additional element to the physical electricity market is the Elbas market in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Germany. In this market place, trade continues even up to one hour before the delivery.
The last transactions in the physical market are concluded by the transmission system operator during the actual hour of operation to maintain the power balance in each country. For that purpose bids at the Nordic balancing power market are used.
Financial instruments available in the market refer to the spot market price. Financial instruments are quoted and traded publicly at the financial electricity exchange Nord Pool ASA and bilaterally through OTC brokers.