The word promises more than it delivers
"We follow the Nordic standard" is a sentence that recurs in requirement specifications and in sales meetings. It reassures, and it explains nothing.
There are several standards in the Nordics, they cover different parts of the job, and they are not translations of each other. Knowing which one is meant is the difference between an estimate that holds and one that does not.
Ediel: a family, not one format
EdielNordic profile of the EDI EDIFACT standard - used for electronic message exchange in the Nordic power market via Elhub. is the Nordic family of market messages, in use since 1996. It builds on EDIFACTElectronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transport - UN standard for electronic data exchange., the UN standard for electronic data interchangeElectronic Data Interchange - standardised electronic exchange of business documents between systems., and consists of message types each with its own purpose: metering values in one, settlementTurning metering data into money. Consumption and production per metering point become what each party owes or is owed. basis in another, process messages in a third.
Two things are worth understanding about it.
It is strict. EDIFACTElectronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transport - UN standard for electronic data exchange. messages have fixed structure, defined segments and acknowledgementThe receipt that says the message arrived. Its counterpart NACK says it was not accepted. Without one of them the sender knows nothing. requirements. That is not clumsiness, it is how two systems agree without phoning each other. A message is either valid or it is not.
It is older than the hubs. EdielNordic profile of the EDI EDIFACT standard - used for electronic message exchange in the Nordic power market via Elhub. was made for a world where parties spoke directly to each other. When the hubs arrived it was used onwards towards them, but it was never designed for a hub.
In Sweden, EdielNordic profile of the EDI EDIFACT standard - used for electronic message exchange in the Nordic power market via Elhub. is not a legacy system. There is no hub to send to, so the messages still travel from party to party, as they always have.
eBIX: same job, different lineage
Denmark uses eBIX, Energy Business Information eXchange. In practice it does the same job as EdielNordic profile of the EDI EDIFACT standard - used for electronic message exchange in the Nordic power market via Elhub., describing market processes in a format both parties can read.
But it is not EdielNordic profile of the EDI EDIFACT standard - used for electronic message exchange in the Nordic power market via Elhub. with different field names. The modelling is different, and that is not a question of translation: two formats describing the same reality can still carve it up differently, and then someone has to decide what corresponds to what.
That work is called mapping, and it is always bigger than it looks on a slide.
And then the hubs arrived with their own interfaces
When ElhubNational hub for metering data and market processes in the Norwegian electricity market., DataHubNational hub for metering data and market processes in the Norwegian electricity market. and the Finnish DatahubNational hub for metering data and market processes in the Norwegian electricity market. were built, they got modern interfaces: XMLExtensible Markup Language - universal markup language for structured data, standard in Elhub's Ediel messages. and APIs, not EDIFACTElectronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transport - UN standard for electronic data exchange. files.
That adds a third layer to the picture, and it is where many integrations actually live:
EdielNordic profile of the EDI EDIFACT standard - used for electronic message exchange in the Nordic power market via Elhub. / EDIFACTElectronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transport - UN standard for electronic data exchange. between parties, and still into some hubs
eBIX Danish market communication
XMLExtensible Markup Language - universal markup language for structured data, standard in Elhub's Ediel messages. and APIs the hubs' own interfaces
A system that has to speak to ElhubNational hub for metering data and market processes in the Norwegian electricity market. does not need EDIFACTElectronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transport - UN standard for electronic data exchange.. A system that has to speak to a Swedish counterparty cannot avoid it. And a system doing both needs both.
Why it never became one format
It is tempting to read the differences as a lack of cooperation. The chronology explains it better.
EdielNordic profile of the EDI EDIFACT standard - used for electronic message exchange in the Nordic power market via Elhub. arrived in 1996, in a world without hubs, and solved the problem that existed then. Denmark built a hub in 2013 and chose the eBIX family. Norway built in 2019 and landed on XMLExtensible Markup Language - universal markup language for structured data, standard in Elhub's Ediel messages. and APIs towards ElhubNational hub for metering data and market processes in the Norwegian electricity market.. Finland built in 2022.
Each made a reasonable choice for its problem and its decade. The sum is nevertheless that there is no single Nordic format, and that nobody can decide to introduce one without four countries changing at the same time.
What to ask about
Three questions reveal what is actually required, far better than the word standard does.
Which format, and which version? "EdielNordic profile of the EDI EDIFACT standard - used for electronic message exchange in the Nordic power market via Elhub." is a family. The message type and the version are what decide whether two systems actually speak to each other.
Towards whom? A hub, a counterparty, or both. That decides whether you need a transport layer at all.
Who owns the mapping? If your system reads only one format, someone has to translate. The question is not whether it will be done, but who owns that translation and updates it when the format changes.