OSLO (Reuters) - Nasdaq has received the right to operate in the Nordic day-ahead power market, it said late on Tuesday, after Swedish regulatory authorities issued the exchange operator a licence.

The Nordic market comprises 15 individual bidding, or price, zones, and a daily auction determines a common system price as well as individual prices for each zone.

Stockholm-based Nasdaq subsidiary Nasdaq Spot has been granted status as a Nominated Electricity Market Operators (NEMO), entitling it to carry out day-ahead market coupling operations, the Swedish Energy Markets Inspectorate (Ei) said.

The NEMO concept was introduced by the European Union in 2015 to harmonise physical power trading for next-day and same-day markets, as well as increase competition between exchanges.

"The approval is valid for all Nordic markets – and although we of course welcome the decision as it allows us to keep moving forward with our plans to launch a day-ahead market for power, we don´t have an update on when we will be able to go live," David Augustsson, a spokesperson for Nasdaq's European Markets, told Reuters by e-mail.

Sweden-based Nasdaq Commodities currently operates a financial trading platform for European energy markets, including for Nordic power. There are already two other NEMOs operating in the Nordic market - Norway-based Nord Pool Spot and EPEX Spot, headquartered in Paris.

(Reporting by Nora Buli; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)