The role of transmission tariffs in the Austrian market opening

The goal of this paper is to illustrate the influence of the transmission tariff on the participation of the eligible customers on the liberalized market, on one hand, and to evaluate its contribution to cover the cost of the grid, on the other. This paper represents the impacts of the opening of the internal electricity market on the Austrian power industry. For the gradual market opening the real energy trading potentials and their consequences to the Austrian market are investigated. The second part of this paper focuses on transmission pricing for the main Austrian grid (230 and 400 kV). For reason of comparison the actual Austrian postage stamp tariff is presented. Furthermore, the basic concept for the development of a load-flow based transmission tariff is examined. There is no doubt that the market opening will depend on the magnitude of the transmission tariffs and the selected wheeling methodology.