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Methodology

Published release

Almena public methodology

public-methodology@1.0.0Effective 25 September 2026Approval MPR-08F5B059EAB8

SHA-256 bad0bc93418b5e86ba11f47c49dab9f5ac69e66ff08b57f43075414be8395b12

At a glance

ANCILLARY CAPACITY, ranked source hierarchy

  • Official market clearing1
  • Official operational observation2
  • Derived from observed3
  • Approved proxy4

Higher rank is used first. Sources are never blended; a fallback is disclosed on the published value.

CAPTURE RATE, ranked source hierarchy

  • Executed transaction1
  • Official market clearing2
  • Official operational observation3
  • Derived from observed4
  • Approved proxy5
  • Expert judgement6

Higher rank is used first. Sources are never blended; a fallback is disclosed on the published value.

PRICE SPREAD, ranked source hierarchy

  • Official market clearing1
  • Official operational observation2
  • Derived from observed3
  • Approved proxy4

Higher rank is used first. Sources are never blended; a fallback is disclosed on the published value.

Minimum data sufficiency by family

  • Ancillary capacity95%
  • Capture rate95%
  • Price spread98%

Share of eligible delivery intervals required before a period value is determined. Below the threshold no value is published.

Methodology and publication status

  • De-wind-captureNot published
  • Es-afrr-ancillaryNot published
  • Es-solar-capturePublished
  • Es-wind-capturePublished
  • Fr-spread-daNot published

A benchmark shows public values only when its publication status is PUBLISHED.

Benchmarks in scope by market

  • France1
  • Germany/luxembourg1
  • Spain3

Number of governed benchmarks covered by this methodology release, per market.

Benchmark families

Ancillary capacity

Unit
EUR/MW/h
Period
Rolling 12 months, calendar year, quarter and month, published separately.
Currency
EUR
Limitations
  • Capacity remuneration only; activation (energy) payments, imbalance settlement and penalties are excluded.
  • Market-level procurement result; it is not the revenue of any individual provider and reflects no availability or prequalification cost.
  • Product definitions and procurement design change over time; cross-period comparison is limited.
Calculation basis
Volume-weighted mean of official contracted capacity prices across eligible procurement periods and directions
Economic interest
The remuneration paid for holding balancing capacity available in the stated market and product, expressed per MW of contracted capacity per hour. Activation energy is out of scope.
Asset specification
No asset is assumed. Any prequalified balancing service provider is in scope; no technology, duration or availability assumption is applied.
Eligible observations
Official contracted balancing-capacity procurement results (price and contracted volume) published by the TSO or the procurement platform for the stated product and delivery periods.
Sufficiency threshold
0.95
  1. 1.Official market clearing: Official contracted balancing-capacity procurement results (price and contracted volume) published by the TSO or procurement platform.
  2. 2.Official operational observation: Official operational restatements of procurement results published by the TSO.
  3. 3.Derived from observed: Values derived deterministically from published procurement results (for example direction aggregation or period weighting).
  4. 4.Approved proxy: Approved proxy capacity-price series, used only where official results are unavailable for a procurement period.

Capture rate

Unit
EUR/MWh and % of time-weighted price
Period
Rolling 12 months, calendar year, quarter and month, published separately.
Currency
EUR
Limitations
  • Fleet-equivalent; not a plant-level capture result and not a PPA price.
  • Generation is a published system estimate, not settlement metering.
  • Curtailed and negatively priced intervals are included and can dominate the result.
Calculation basis
Generation-weighted capture price and capture ratio
Economic interest
The revenue a fleet-equivalent generator realises per unit of energy produced, relative to the time-weighted day-ahead price for the same delivery period.
Asset specification
No individual asset is assumed. The generation leg is the published fleet-level metered/estimated output for the stated technologies in the stated area.
Eligible observations
Delivery intervals with both an eligible day-ahead price observation and eligible fleet generation for the contracted technologies.
Sufficiency threshold
0.95
  1. 1.Executed transaction: Executed, observable and source-verified transactions.
  2. 2.Official market clearing: Official market-clearing or settlement data (OMIE, ESIOS, TSO settlement).
  3. 3.Official operational observation: Official operational observations published by a TSO or market operator.
  4. 4.Derived from observed: Values derived deterministically from observed inputs.
  5. 5.Approved proxy: Approved proxy series, used only where a higher level is unavailable.
  6. 6.Expert judgement: Documented expert judgement under the expert-judgement policy.

Price spread

Unit
EUR/MWh
Period
Rolling 12 months, calendar year, quarter and month, published separately.
Currency
EUR
Limitations
  • A price statistic, not achievable revenue: no asset, efficiency, cycling, availability or trading cost is modelled.
  • Max−min is sensitive to single extreme intervals and is not a tradable reference.
  • Native resolution changes (60-minute to 15-minute) mechanically widen the observed spread; the resolution in force is disclosed per period.
Calculation basis
Arithmetic mean over eligible delivery days of (max − min) of the day-ahead price series for that delivery day, on native price resolution
Economic interest
The intra-day dispersion of day-ahead wholesale prices in the stated bidding zone: the average, over delivery days in the period, of the difference between the highest and lowest day-ahead prices of the delivery day.
Asset specification
No asset is assumed. The determination is a market-level price statistic and carries no capacity, duration, efficiency or dispatch assumption.
Eligible observations
Complete day-ahead price series for a delivery day in the stated bidding zone, from the canonical day-ahead source for that zone.
Sufficiency threshold
0.98
  1. 1.Official market clearing: Official day-ahead clearing prices from the canonical source for the bidding zone (NEMO/market operator, or ENTSO-E A44 where the operator is not the canonical source).
  2. 2.Official operational observation: Official republished day-ahead price series from a secondary official publication channel.
  3. 3.Derived from observed: Values derived deterministically from observed prices (for example resolution alignment by duration-weighted means).
  4. 4.Approved proxy: Approved proxy price series, used only where no official series exists for the delivery day.

Benchmarks

Capture rate · Germany/Luxembourg
Family
CAPTURE_RATE
Outliers
No winsorisation, trimming or outlier removal. Extreme official values are retained and disclosed.
Rounding
Half-up to 2 decimal places at publication only; no intermediate rounding.
Fallbacks
Fallback below rank 1 is permitted only under the benchmark input hierarchy, must be disclosed per input selection, and requires a named approver where the hierarchy level is approval-gated.
Objective
Determine the generation-weighted capture price and capture ratio realised by the DE-LU wind fleet (onshore and offshore combined) against the DE-LU day-ahead price, per calendar period.
Revisions
Revisions are numbered per observation. Source restatements received after publication are applied at the next scheduled determination unless the materiality threshold is breached, in which case an out-of-cycle correction is issued.
Exclusions
  • Non-wind technologies are excluded.
  • Separate onshore-only and offshore-only results are not determined under this methodology.
  • Intervals lacking a generation value are excluded and counted against coverage.
Calculation
Identical to the capture family formula: capture_price = Σ(price_i × generation_i) / Σ(generation_i); capture_ratio = capture_price / duration-weighted mean day-ahead price over the same eligible interval set.
Corrections
A published value is never overwritten. A correction supersedes the prior observation and creates a new revision with its own evidence binding.
Limitations
  • Fleet-equivalent; not a plant-level capture result and not a PPA price.
  • Generation is a published system estimate, not settlement metering.
  • Curtailed and negatively priced intervals are included and can dominate the result.
Benchmark id
de-wind-capture
Bidding zone
DE-LU
Missing data
Missing intervals are dropped and counted against coverage. No interpolation, carry-forward or substitution of a modelled value is permitted.
Input universe
Price leg: canonical DE-LU day-ahead prices. Generation leg: published DE-LU fleet wind onshore and wind offshore generation for the same delivery intervals.
Timezone and dst
Intervals are identified by their UTC start instant; delivery days follow the Europe/Berlin calendar day, handling 23-, 24- and 25-hour days natively.
Eligibility rules
  • An interval is eligible only where an eligible price observation and eligible wind generation exist for the same UTC start instant.
  • Onshore and offshore generation are summed onto the same interval before weighting.
  • IEC 62325 A.01 sparse-decoded (carry-forward) generation points are admitted and disclosed as such.
Cessation triggers
  • Sustained failure of the input-data sufficiency threshold.
  • Permanent loss of the rank-1 input with no acceptable substitute.
  • Structural market change that makes the measured economic interest no longer meaningful.
  • Loss of the right to use required source data.
Currency treatment
EUR as published by the source. No FX conversion is performed and no deflation or indexation is applied.
Methodology status
METHODOLOGY_DRAFT
Publication status
NOT_PUBLISHED
Methodology version
de-wind-capture@0.1.0-draft
Publication schedule
Monthly, on the fifth business day following period end (D+5BD). No value is published while the benchmark is BLOCKED or the sufficiency threshold is unmet.
Materiality threshold
0.5% of the determined value, or any change that alters the disclosed status of the determination.
Ancillary capacity · Spain
Family
ANCILLARY_CAPACITY
Outliers
No winsorisation, trimming or outlier removal. Extreme official values are retained and disclosed.
Rounding
Half-up to 2 decimal places at publication only; no intermediate rounding.
Fallbacks
Fallback below rank 1 is permitted only under the benchmark input hierarchy, must be disclosed per input selection, and requires a named approver where the hierarchy level is approval-gated.
Objective
Determine the volume-weighted average price paid for aFRR (secondary regulation) capacity availability in the Spanish balancing market, per calendar period. Activation energy is explicitly out of scope.
Revisions
Revisions are numbered per observation. Source restatements received after publication are applied at the next scheduled determination unless the materiality threshold is breached, in which case an out-of-cycle correction is issued.
Exclusions
  • Activation energy prices and volumes, imbalance settlement, and non-delivery penalties are excluded. Their inclusion would be a MATERIAL methodology change requiring oversight approval and a notice period.
  • mFRR, RR, FCR and any non-aFRR product is excluded.
  • Bilateral or non-market allocations are excluded.
Calculation
value = Σ(capacity_price_p × contracted_volume_p) / Σ(contracted_volume_p) over eligible procurement periods p in the determination period, expressed in EUR/MW/h.
Corrections
A published value is never overwritten. A correction supersedes the prior observation and creates a new revision with its own evidence binding.
Limitations
  • Capacity remuneration only; activation (energy) payments, imbalance settlement and penalties are excluded.
  • Market-level procurement result; it is not the revenue of any individual provider and reflects no availability or prequalification cost.
  • Product definitions and procurement design change over time; cross-period comparison is limited.
Benchmark id
es-afrr-ancillary
Bidding zone
ES
Missing data
Missing intervals are dropped and counted against coverage. No interpolation, carry-forward or substitution of a modelled value is permitted.
Input universe
Official Spanish aFRR capacity procurement results published by the TSO (contracted capacity price and contracted volume per procurement period and direction).
Timezone and dst
Intervals are identified by their UTC start instant. Delivery days are the local calendar days of the stated market timezone, so 23-, 24- and 25-hour days are handled natively and no interval is duplicated or dropped at a DST transition.
Eligibility rules
  • A procurement period is eligible only where both a contracted capacity price and a contracted volume are officially published.
  • Upward and downward bands are aggregated by contracted volume unless the period result is published per direction.
  • Only capacity (availability) remuneration is admitted into the determination.
Cessation triggers
  • Sustained failure of the input-data sufficiency threshold.
  • Permanent loss of the rank-1 input with no acceptable substitute.
  • Structural market change that makes the measured economic interest no longer meaningful.
  • Loss of the right to use required source data.
Currency treatment
EUR as published by the source. No FX conversion is performed and no deflation or indexation is applied.
Methodology status
METHODOLOGY_DRAFT
Publication status
NOT_PUBLISHED
Methodology version
es-afrr-ancillary@0.1.0-draft
Publication schedule
Monthly, on the fifth business day following period end (D+5BD). No value is published while the benchmark is BLOCKED or the sufficiency threshold is unmet.
Materiality threshold
0.5% of the determined value, or any change to the product perimeter (direction set or inclusion of activation).
Capture rate · Spain
Family
CAPTURE_RATE
Outliers
No winsorisation, trimming or outlier removal. Extreme official values are retained and disclosed.
Rounding
Half-up to 2 decimal places at publication only; no intermediate rounding.
Fallbacks
Fallback below rank 1 is permitted only under the benchmark input hierarchy, must be disclosed per input selection, and requires a named approver where the hierarchy level is approval-gated.
Objective
Determine the generation-weighted capture price and capture ratio realised by the Spanish utility-scale solar PV fleet against the Spanish day-ahead price, per calendar period.
Revisions
Revisions are numbered per observation. Source restatements received after publication are applied at the next scheduled determination unless the materiality threshold is breached, in which case an out-of-cycle correction is issued.
Exclusions
  • Technologies outside solar PV, including solar thermal, are excluded.
  • Intervals without a fleet generation value are excluded and counted against coverage, never imputed.
  • Intraday, balancing and PPA prices are out of scope; the price leg is day-ahead only.
Calculation
capture_price = Σ(price_i × generation_i) / Σ(generation_i) over eligible intervals i; time_weighted_price = Σ(price_i × duration_i) / Σ(duration_i) over the same eligible interval set; capture_ratio = capture_price / time_weighted_price. Weighting is by delivered energy (MWh) for the capture price and by interval duration for the reference price.
Corrections
A published value is never overwritten. A correction supersedes the prior observation and creates a new revision with its own evidence binding.
Limitations
  • Fleet-equivalent; not a plant-level capture result and not a PPA price.
  • Generation is a published system estimate, not settlement metering.
  • Curtailed and negatively priced intervals are included and can dominate the result.
Benchmark id
es-solar-capture
Bidding zone
ES
Missing data
Missing intervals are dropped and counted against coverage. No interpolation, carry-forward or substitution of a modelled value is permitted.
Input universe
Price leg: canonical ES day-ahead prices (OMIE is the authoritative source for ES/PT). Generation leg: published ES fleet solar PV generation for the same delivery intervals.
Timezone and dst
Intervals are identified by their UTC start instant. Delivery days are the local calendar days of the stated market timezone, so 23-, 24- and 25-hour days are handled natively and no interval is duplicated or dropped at a DST transition.
Eligibility rules
  • An interval is eligible only where an eligible price observation and an eligible generation observation exist for the same UTC start instant.
  • Generation reported at PT15M is aggregated to the price interval by summation over the covered quarters.
  • Both legs must carry complete provenance (named source and retrieval identity).
Cessation triggers
  • Sustained failure of the input-data sufficiency threshold.
  • Permanent loss of the rank-1 input with no acceptable substitute.
  • Structural market change that makes the measured economic interest no longer meaningful.
  • Loss of the right to use required source data.
Currency treatment
EUR as published by the source. No FX conversion is performed and no deflation or indexation is applied.
Methodology status
METHODOLOGY_DRAFT
Publication status
PUBLISHED
Methodology version
es-solar-capture@0.1.0-draft
Publication schedule
Monthly, on the fifth business day following period end (D+5BD). No value is published while the benchmark is BLOCKED or the sufficiency threshold is unmet.
Materiality threshold
0.5% of the determined value, or any change that alters the disclosed status of the determination.
Capture rate · Spain
Family
CAPTURE_RATE
Outliers
No winsorisation, trimming or outlier removal. Extreme official values are retained and disclosed.
Rounding
Half-up to 2 decimal places at publication only; no intermediate rounding.
Fallbacks
Fallback below rank 1 is permitted only under the benchmark input hierarchy, must be disclosed per input selection, and requires a named approver where the hierarchy level is approval-gated.
Objective
Determine the generation-weighted capture price and capture ratio realised by the Spanish onshore wind fleet against the Spanish day-ahead price, per calendar period.
Revisions
Revisions are numbered per observation. Source restatements received after publication are applied at the next scheduled determination unless the materiality threshold is breached, in which case an out-of-cycle correction is issued.
Exclusions
  • Wind offshore is excluded. The published ES offshore series carries intervals but zero delivered energy, so it contributes no weight and would only dilute provenance; its inclusion would be a MATERIAL methodology change.
  • Solar, hydro and all non-wind technologies are excluded.
  • Intervals without a fleet generation value are excluded and counted against coverage, never imputed.
  • Intraday, balancing and PPA prices are out of scope; the price leg is day-ahead only.
Calculation
capture_price = Σ(price_i × generation_i) / Σ(generation_i) over eligible intervals i; time_weighted_price = Σ(price_i × duration_i) / Σ(duration_i) over the same eligible interval set; capture_ratio = capture_price / time_weighted_price.
Corrections
A published value is never overwritten. A correction supersedes the prior observation and creates a new revision with its own evidence binding.
Limitations
  • The benchmark id is a PROPOSED_TARGET. Writing this draft ledger creates no naming or scope admission and no approval.
Benchmark id
es-wind-capture
Bidding zone
ES
Missing data
Missing intervals are dropped and counted against coverage. No interpolation, carry-forward or substitution of a modelled value is permitted.
Input universe
Price leg: canonical ES day-ahead prices (OMIE is the authoritative source for ES/PT). Generation leg: published ES fleet wind onshore generation for the same delivery intervals.
Timezone and dst
Intervals are identified by their UTC start instant. Delivery days are the local calendar days of the stated market timezone, so 23-, 24- and 25-hour days are handled natively and no interval is duplicated or dropped at a DST transition.
Eligibility rules
  • An interval is eligible only where an eligible price observation and an eligible wind onshore generation observation exist for the same UTC start instant.
  • Generation reported at PT15M is aggregated to the price interval by summation over the covered quarters.
  • Both legs must carry complete provenance (named source and retrieval identity).
Cessation triggers
  • Sustained failure of the input-data sufficiency threshold.
  • Permanent loss of the rank-1 input with no acceptable substitute.
  • Structural market change that makes the measured economic interest no longer meaningful.
  • Loss of the right to use required source data.
Currency treatment
EUR as published by the source. No FX conversion is performed and no deflation or indexation is applied.
Methodology status
METHODOLOGY_DRAFT
Publication status
PUBLISHED
Methodology version
es-wind-capture@0.1.0-draft
Publication schedule
Monthly, on the fifth business day following period end (D+5BD). No value is published while the benchmark is BLOCKED or the sufficiency threshold is unmet.
Materiality threshold
0.5% of the determined value, or any change that alters the disclosed status of the determination.
Price spread · France
Family
PRICE_SPREAD
Outliers
No winsorisation, trimming or outlier removal. Extreme official values are retained and disclosed.
Rounding
Half-up to 2 decimal places at publication only; no intermediate rounding.
Fallbacks
Fallback below rank 1 is permitted only under the benchmark input hierarchy, must be disclosed per input selection, and requires a named approver where the hierarchy level is approval-gated.
Objective
Determine the average intra-day dispersion of French day-ahead wholesale prices: the mean over eligible delivery days of the difference between the highest and lowest day-ahead price of that delivery day.
Revisions
Revisions are numbered per observation. Source restatements received after publication are applied at the next scheduled determination unless the materiality threshold is breached, in which case an out-of-cycle correction is issued.
Exclusions
  • Intraday, continuous, balancing and imbalance prices are out of scope.
  • Partial delivery days are excluded entirely rather than evaluated on the available subset.
  • No storage, efficiency, cycling or dispatch assumption is applied; this is not a revenue benchmark.
Calculation
For each eligible delivery day d: spread_d = max(price over intervals of d) − min(price over intervals of d). Period value = arithmetic mean of spread_d over all eligible delivery days in the period, equally weighted by day. The count of eligible days and the resolution mix are published alongside the value.
Corrections
A published value is never overwritten. A correction supersedes the prior observation and creates a new revision with its own evidence binding.
Limitations
  • A price statistic, not achievable revenue: no asset, efficiency, cycling, availability or trading cost is modelled.
  • Max−min is sensitive to single extreme intervals and is not a tradable reference.
  • Native resolution changes (60-minute to 15-minute) mechanically widen the observed spread; the resolution in force is disclosed per period.
Benchmark id
fr-spread-da
Bidding zone
FR
Missing data
Missing intervals are dropped and counted against coverage. No interpolation, carry-forward or substitution of a modelled value is permitted.
Input universe
Canonical FR day-ahead price series only. Under the price source hierarchy the authoritative input for FR is ENTSO-E Transparency A44 for the FR bidding zone; Energy-Charts is retained as a disclosed rank-2 fallback. No blending of sources within a delivery day is permitted.
Timezone and dst
Delivery days are Europe/Paris calendar days built from UTC interval start instants; the 23-hour and 25-hour days are evaluated on their true interval count.
Eligibility rules
  • A delivery day is eligible only where the day-ahead series is complete for the full local delivery day at the native resolution in force (23, 24, 25 hours, or the equivalent quarter-hour count).
  • All intervals of the delivery day must originate from a single source and a single native resolution.
  • The native resolution in force is recorded with each daily observation and disclosed with the period result.
Cessation triggers
  • Sustained failure of the input-data sufficiency threshold.
  • Permanent loss of the rank-1 input with no acceptable substitute.
  • Structural market change that makes the measured economic interest no longer meaningful.
  • Loss of the right to use required source data.
Currency treatment
EUR as published by the source. No FX conversion is performed and no deflation or indexation is applied.
Methodology status
METHODOLOGY_APPROVED
Publication status
NOT_PUBLISHED
Methodology version
fr-spread-da@0.1.0-draft
Publication schedule
Monthly, on the fifth business day following period end (D+5BD). No value is published while the benchmark is BLOCKED or the sufficiency threshold is unmet.
Materiality threshold
0.5% of the determined spread, or any change to the eligible-day count of more than one day in the period.

Governance

Cessation
A benchmark may be ceased on sustained input insufficiency, permanent loss of an acceptable input, structural market change or loss of data rights. Cessation is announced in advance where possible.
Oversight
Methodology changes are reviewed and approved by named Almena staff acting in a governance role. A separate independent oversight function has not yet been constituted; this limitation is disclosed until it is.
Complaints
Complaints about a benchmark or its methodology can be raised through Almena support under the benchmark governance topic and receive a recorded response.
Iosco qualifier
This is a self-assessment against the IOSCO Principles. It is not an audit, attestation or regulatory determination, and Almena does not claim to be an approved, certified or regulated benchmark administrator.
Iosco statement
Designed to align with the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks.
Status semantics

Published: A determination released under an approved publication decision.

Not published: Calculated internally or under review. No public value exists.

Methodology draft: The methodology is documented but not yet approved; no benchmark value is published under it.

Methodology approved: The methodology is approved; periods without sufficient complete data carry no value.

Licensing boundary
Inputs are official market and system-operator publications used under their public terms. Published benchmark values may be quoted with attribution to Almena; redistribution of underlying source data is governed by each source’s own terms.
Conflicts of interest
Benchmark determinations are calculated from published official market data under fixed rules. Staff may not adjust a determination by judgement; any exception is recorded and disclosed.
Change and consultation
Material methodology changes require an impact assessment, a recorded governance approval, a consultation decision and a notice period before the effective date. Non-material documentation changes are published with a change note.
Revisions and corrections
Published values are never overwritten. Corrections and restatements supersede the prior value, keep it visible in history, and are applied under the stated materiality threshold.