Market coupling feasibility between a power pool and a power exchange

•Volume-based market coupling between a power exchange (PX) and a power pool.•Single, centralized market splitting approach.•Comparison in terms of pricing, overall social welfare and computational time.•The centralized approach is more efficient in all aspects.•Each market could retain its national rules/mechanisms in the EU market integration.

The integration of the spot electricity markets in Europe shall lead to multi-area power exchanges that will substitute the local markets. In view of the “target model” that will be enforced in all European markets and the forthcoming coupling/integration of the Greek with the Italian electricity market, a volume-based market coupling between a power exchange (PX) and a power pool is implemented in this paper. The pros and cons of this approach are quantified, and the attained results are compared with the results of a single market splitting approach, in terms of pricing, overall social welfare and computational time.