The available cross border transmission capacity is the amount of capacity on the cross border connections available to the market in capacity auctions, taking into account all relevant information available at the time of the forecast calculation for instance, the impact of summer and winter seasons on the capacity of lines, maintenance on the grid, availability of production units, etc.. The available cross border transmission capacity is calculated per direction (import and export). At this moment there are eight alternating current cross border connections and two direct current cross border connections with the Netherlands, which contribute to the security of supply and good pricing in Europe. The available cross border capacity can be obtained via an implicit or explicit capacity auction mechanism. Year- and Month-Ahead capacity auctions The cross border transmission capacity which is auctioned on the Year- and Month-ahead auctions are conducted via the explicit mechanism for the Dutch – German and Dutch – Belgian border via CASC-CWE S.A. Luxembourg. More information on access rules, mechanism, firmness and auction rules are to be obtained on the CASC-CWE S.A. website. Daily capacity auction A daily capacity auction is held on the Dutch – German and Dutch – Belgian border and are conducted via an implicit mechanism. The implicit mechanism (CWE market coupling) is organized by the TSOs of France (RTE), Belgium (Elia), Germany (Amprion, EnBW en TenneT), Luxembourg (Creos) and the Netherlands (TenneT TSO BV) and the power exchanges of these countries being EPEX Spot, Belpex and APX-ENDEX. In this mechanism the TSO's will make available an amount of transmission capacity which will be matched by the power exchange with the orders for electricity transactions made. More information on this topic is to be found on the website of APX-ENDEX. In the event that the market coupling mechanism will not be available a back-up procedure will be executed being an explicit auction mechanism for the border between the Netherlands and Belgium and between the Netherlands and Germany. This so called Fall- back or shadow auction procedure will be conducted by CASC. More information on this can be obtained on this page. Via the Interim tight volume coupling between the CWE and Nordic region (CWE-Nordic ITVC) the prices and allocation in the energy trading zones of the CWE market coupling area is influenced also by the Nordic market. More information on this is available via the TenneT website (CWE en ITVC market coupling) The daily cross border capacity between the Netherlands and Norway is conducted via an explicit mechanism and is held by NorNed auction. More information on access rules, mechanism, firmness and auction rules are to be found on the NorNed Auction website. Approximately in December 2010 the daily cross border capacity auction will be conducted also in the CWE market coupling mechanism. Intraday The intraday available cross border capacity on the Dutch and Belgian border is done via an explicit mechanism and is conducted by the Belgian TSO Elia, More information on this auction are to be found on the website of Elia. The intraday available cross border capacity on the German and the Netherlands border is done via a platform in cooperation with the German TSO's (Amprion, EnBW and TenneT). TenneT is contact person for the market, more information is to be found on the website of TenneT. BritNed All auctions in connection with the BritNed cable are done by Britned development Limited. Information concerning auction types, rules etc. is to be found on the website of BritNed.