By Lefteris Karagiannopoulos

OSLO, Nov 19 (Reuters) - EPEX SPOT, part of European energy bourse EEX, expects to launch its intraday power trading platform in the Nordics in January, with day-ahead following in March, the exchange told Reuters on Tuesday.

The launch will end a long-standing regional monopoly for Nordic power exchange Nord Pool and increase competition between platforms for spot electricity trading.

While EPEX received a licence at the beginning of 2019 to operate an intraday market in Norway, permission to operate the day-ahead market is still outstanding.

"For day-ahead, this licence is still to be issued by the government," said an EPEX spokeswoman. "It is supposed to be granted soon."

EPEX expects to have all needed permits for the day-ahead market in place on March 10, it told Reuters in an email.

The EU legal framework allowing multiple electricity market operators to work in the Nordic zone is expected to be implemented from that date, it said, subject to testing and all other implementation steps being carried out "without delay".

The so-called Multi-NEMO Arrangement will allow EPEX SPOT to operate markets in the Nordic region, meaning Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The additional licence in Norway is required because Norway is not a member of the European Union.

"First member tests have already started and several members of EPEX SPOT have successfully tested their technical set-up to trade on the Nordic markets," EPEX said.

"More tests will follow before the launch of day-ahead and intraday trading in the Nordics."

The expected launch dates are subject to successful testing and regulatory approval, it said.

EPEX's parent EEX is Deutsche Boerse's flagship power derivatives market. EEX already trades financial power derivative contracts in the Nordics, competing with Nasdaq in the futures market.

Nord Pool is owned by power transmission system operators from the Nordic and Baltic countries. (Reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos)