The on-going restructuring and market design processes for the power sector, with its complex objectivesof competition, security and decarbonisation has created a need to understand the drivers of change andthe nature of electricity price dynamics. Since electricity is a unique commodity, not easily storablewith important implications when balancing supply and demand, any imbalances can cause largeand sharp changes in price. Hence, AaDAMS, a project on “Auction and Day—Ahead Markets Spikes”,investigates appropriate modeling, forecasting and risk management techniques for the occurrenceof spikes and abnormal price excursions in electricity markets, focusing upon agent specific as wellas market level data. AaDAMS has a main objective of understanding abnormal pricedynamics observed in wholesale electricity prices looking at the behaviour of generators’auction offers, as well as related parallel objectives concerning the exercise of marketpower in the European Electricity Markets, the potential interaction of strategicbehaviour with new technology characteristics, such as wind intermittency and the effect ofpolicy interventions in market design on price dynamics.