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Full details of auction parameters and interconnector de-rating factors

Published 21 July 2026

© Crown copyright 2026

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/capacity-market-auction-parameters-letter-from-desnz-to-neso-july-2026/full-details-of-auction-parameters-and-interconnector-de-rating-factors

Table 1: Auction parameters  

T-1 Auction for delivery in 2027/28 T-4 Auction for delivery in 2030/31
Auction target capacity 5.0 GW 40.9 GW
Demand curve: minimum capacity at price cap 4.0 GW 39.4 GW
Demand curve: maximum capacity at £0 6.0 GW 42.4 GW
Reliability Standard (Loss of Load Expectation, LOLE) 3 hours LOLE 3 hours LOLE
Net Cost of New Entry (CONE) £49/kW/yr £49/kW/yr
Price Cap £75/kW/yr £75/kW/yr
Price Taker Threshold £25/kW/yr £25/kW/yr
15-year agreement threshold N/A[footnote 1] £360/kW[footnote 2]
9-year agreement threshold (for eligible Declared Low Carbon Capacity Market Units (CMUs) only) N/A[footnote 1] £215/kW[footnote 2]
3-year agreement threshold (for non-Three Year Zero Capex Threshold CMUs) N/A[footnote 1] £65/kW[footnote 2]
3-year agreement zero threshold (for eligible Three Year Zero Capex Threshold CMUs only) N/A[footnote 1] £0/kW
Indexation N/A 2025/26

Table 2: Interconnector de-rating factors

T-4 auction for the 2030/31 Delivery Year T-4 auction for the 2030/31 Delivery Year T-4 auction for the 2030/31 Delivery Year T-4 auction for the 2030/31 Delivery Year
Interconnector (interconnected country) Connection capacity[footnote 3](GW) NESO’s country de-rating factor range[footnote 4](%) PTE’s country de-rating factor[footnote 5](%) Technical adjustment[footnote 6](%) Interconnector de-rating factor (%)[footnote 7]
IFA (France) 2 45 – 90 71 78 55
IFA2 (France) 1.1 45 – 90 71 81 57
ElecLink (France) 1 45 – 90 71 84 60
BritNed (Netherlands) 1.2 22 – 93 71 81 57
Moyle (Northern Ireland) 0.5 5 – 91 62 78 49
EWIC (Republic of Ireland) 0.5 5 – 91 62 97 60
Greenlink  (Republic of Ireland) 0.5 5 – 91 62 99 61
NemoLink (Belgium) 1 25 – 90 71 100 71
NSL (Norway) 1.4 71 – 97 75 91 68
VikingLink (Denmark) 1.5 17 – 92 71 94 67
Neuconnect (Germany) 1.4 19 – 93 71 93 66

  1. Multi-year agreements are not awarded in the T-1 auction. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. The 3-year (for non-Three Year Zero Capex Threshold CMUs) and 15-year agreement thresholds are adjusted from the previous T-4 value (for the 2029/30 delivery year) for inflation, indexed to the 2025/26 inflation level, and rounded to the nearest £5. The 9-year agreement threshold (for eligible Declared Low Carbon CMUs only) is set as the midpoint between these thresholds, rounded to the nearest £5. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Connection capacity taken from Capacity Market Register data for the 2029-30 T-4 Capacity Market Auction (accessed June 2026). ↩

  4. Taken from NESO’s 2026 Electricity Capacity Report. ↩

  5. Taken from the Panel of Technical Expert’s Report on the 2026 Electricity Capacity Report. ↩

  6. Calculated as per the methodology described in the Updated technical adjustment methodology for de-rating interconnectors in the Capacity Market. Number displayed is rounded to the nearest integer. ↩

  7. Calculated by multiplying the PTE’s interconnected country de-rating factor determination with each interconnector’s technical adjustment. ↩

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