Day-ahead market
The day-ahead market is the wholesale auction that prices each hour of tomorrow's electricity, today. In Estonia the day-ahead market is operated by the NEMO Nord Pool, with hourly auctions for the EE bidding zone clearing alongside Continental Europe under the SDAC mechanism. The clearing price is the spot price reference for nearly every other electricity contract.
The day-ahead market is the wholesale auction that prices each hour of tomorrow's electricity, today. Bids close at 12:00 CET; an algorithm — implemented across Europe via the Single Day-Ahead Coupling (SDAC) mechanism under CACM Regulation (EU) 2015/1222 — clears every bidding zone simultaneously, producing 24 hourly prices that anchor essentially every retail tariff and PPA reference rate.
How clearing works
In Estonia the day-ahead market is operated by Nord Pool, the designated NEMO. Generators submit supply curves; suppliers and large consumers submit demand curves; the algorithm finds the price at which supply equals demand for the EE bidding zone, subject to cross-border transmission constraints with FI, LV and SE4. Successful bids are settled at the marginal clearing price — pay-as-clear, not pay-as-bid.
Why it matters
Day-ahead prices are the spot price reference for nearly every other market. Imbalance prices are derived from the spread between day-ahead and the activated balancing energy. Spot tariffs (used by most Volton retail customers) pass the hourly day-ahead price through to consumption. Forward contracts and PPAs typically reference the day-ahead clearing price as their settlement basis.
Day-ahead vs intraday
After day-ahead gate closure, residual mismatches between forecast and reality are cleaned up on the intraday market — a continuous order book that runs until close to physical delivery. For BRPs, the day-ahead position is the headline number; intraday is where forecast errors get worked out before settling at imbalance prices.