DAM - the first step toward tomorrow's energy
The Day-Ahead Market (DAM) establishes the base commercial position for the following day. Through trades concluded on this market, participants fix their volumes, prices and exposure, which can later be adjusted on the Intraday Market.
What is the Day-Ahead Market?
In Romania, the Day-Ahead Market has a central role in forming the electricity price. Through this market, participants define their reference volumes, prices and commercial positions for the following delivery day.
Why DAM matters
For renewable producers and suppliers, DAM is the main mechanism for valorising estimated production and consumption. Trading these volumes in advance reduces exposure to delivery-day risks, supports market balance and limits price volatility on the Intraday Market.
How trading works on DAM
DAM gives participants a transparent and competitive framework for aligning estimated production, forecast consumption and contractual obligations before the delivery day.
The market allows both orders for individual trading intervals and block orders covering several consecutive intervals. Each order is defined by quantity-price pairs, while structuring delivery intervals of 15, 30 or 60 minutes allows production and consumption profiles to be represented accurately. After the order submission session closes, orders are validated and aggregated, and the market coupling mechanism determines the traded volumes and closing prices.
Gate closure and the daily schedule
In normal operation, access to the DAM trading system opens at 06:00 CET, and the gate for submitting orders for the following day closes at 12:00 CET on the day before delivery. After this moment, submitted orders are processed and transaction confirmations are published later.
SDAC and European market coupling
Romania’s Day-Ahead Market operates within the European Single Day-Ahead Coupling framework, known as SDAC. This means that the Romanian bidding zone is connected with other European bidding zones through a common coupling mechanism.
Through SDAC, electricity and available cross-border transmission capacity are allocated together in the day-ahead process. This helps create a more integrated European market, improves the use of interconnections and supports transparent price formation across coupled regions.
How IntraPower Trading helps
IntraPower Trading transforms forecasts, historical data and market signals into well-founded trading decisions on DAM. We analyse estimated production, consumption profiles, price evolution, asset availability and imbalance exposure to define the optimal bidding strategy for each portfolio.
Our objective is not only to submit an order, but to build a position that can be financially sustained. The DAM result becomes the base, while intraday trading later manages the differences between forecast and reality, reducing avoidable exposure to imbalances.
DAM and the Intraday Market, together
DAM and the Intraday Market should not be treated separately. DAM establishes the initial position, while the Intraday Market adjusts that position closer to real time.
Used together, the two markets create a more controlled process: sell or buy the expected volume in advance, then correct the remaining difference before it reaches the balancing mechanism. For renewable portfolios, this combination is essential for stabilising revenue and controlling risk.