CAO Central Allocation Office GmbH finalized and published in November 2010 with cooperation of the CEE TSOs the “Rules for Coordinated Auction of Transmission Capacity in the CEE-Region” which are valid for explicit transmission capacity allocation in the whole CEE region in 2011 and further. On 09.11.2012 CAO published updated Auction Rules which will be effective as of 10.12.2012.

The Auction Rules define rights and obligations of market participants interested in participation in auctions. Furthermore specify the new auction algorithm for allocation of available capacity with objective to maximize social welfare. The document also introduces two methods of capacity determination - the coordinated NTC based system as recently applied solution and the flow-based method (FBA) to be used in future.

CAO is responsible for auctions operation as the CEE single regional auction office in its new auction ePortal (an IT solution developed for capacity calculation and the allocation process). Capacities are determined by applying an enhanced method of coordinated NTC calculation based on a common grid model as an interim solution supported by CAO.