Welcome to EPEX SPOT!

General conditions

Any user of this website expressly agrees to the Conditions of Use published in the Privacy Notice and the Usage of Website.

 

Market Data Use

The content of the Website is to be used exclusively for internal reasons. Commercial usage is only allowed after explicit approval of EPEX SPOT. Please click here for General Conditions of Data Use.


Bidding zone split would necessitate considerable amount of time and effort across power trading sector

Customer survey: Exchange Council deliberates on results

Paris, 17 March 2016 – At the quarterly meeting of the Exchange Council of the European Power Exchange, the effects of a potential split of the German-Austrian bidding zone were debated amongst the members. EPEX SPOT presented an internal impact assessment out-lining the time and effort spent by the EPEX SPOT teams following such a split. The study shows that a bidding zone split would lead to a time-consuming internal project of 9 to 12 months for EPEX SPOT only. Interactions with external operations such as the Multi-Regional Coupling, which could lead to further need for resources, are not taken into consideration in this assessment.

The impact assessment of EPEX SPOT echoes the findings of a study conducted by Consentec in association with EPEX SPOT and EEX in February 2015 which showed that, in case of a bidding zone split, costs for re-dispatch can in some cases be reduced while continuous inefficiencies arise from uncertainties when determining transmission capacities between the smaller zones. Comparing these two cost factors, the study illustrated that a split of the German-Austrian bidding zone would increase the total cost of power supply by up to 100 million Euros per year. It would not only harm the high liquidity in the German-Austrian market area, but would also have a detrimental effect on the European Derivatives Market and counteract the goal towards an increasingly integrated single market.

“A split of the highly integrated German-Austrian bidding zone would create a considerable amount of workload across the sector”, says Exchange Council President Peter Heydecker. “This split would need to be well prepared well in advance with members and stakeholders of the power trading sector.”

The Exchange Council also discussed the results of the latest customer survey. While even more members participated than in the past years, overall satisfaction with services and systems stayed at the same high level. Members are looking forward to the trading system migration to ETS (Day-Ahead) and M7 (Intraday) in the Netherlands and Belgium, and are supporting the integration efforts of EPEX SPOT in the merger with former competitor APX.

The survey also reveals some issues regarding intraday trading services. Following a sharp increase in traded volumes over the past years, systems may experience performance issues during peak hours. Also, members are in need of more flexible trading tools. The Exchange Council underlined the importance of a performant, reliable and ergonomic intraday trading system, especially in the light of the increasing amount of electricity from renewable energy sources which needs to be traded in the very short-term.

“EPEX SPOT takes this feedback very seriously”, says Jean-François Conil-Lacoste, Chairman of the Management Board of EPEX SPOT. “With 15-minute contracts across Germany, Switzerland and now Austria as well with shortened lead-time up to 30 minutes before delivery, we have taken the first steps. In April, we will roll out a more powerful version of the ComTrader front-end for traders. Together with our partners from ECC and Deutsche Börse, our teams are working hard to make M7 the best intraday trading platform out there.”

The first Exchange Council meeting in 2016 was held on 15 March 2016 in Paris and was chaired by Peter Heydecker.

The Exchange Council of EPEX SPOT is an official body of the Exchange. 22 members and 4 permanent guests represent adequately the diversity of economic and corporate profiles that exists among the Exchange Members from various sectors: producers, power trad-ing companies, transmission system operators, regional suppliers and financial service pro-viders, as well as commercial consumers and academics. Its missions include in particular the adoption of the Exchange Rules and the Code of Conduct of EPEX SPOT and their amendments. The Exchange Council approves new trading systems as well as new contracts or market areas and approves the appointment of the Head of the Market Surveillance Office. It meets up quarterly.

The European Power Exchange EPEX SPOT SE and its affiliates operate organised short-term electricity markets for Germany, France, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg; markets representing 50% of European electricity consumption. Striving for the well-functioning European single market for electricity, EPEX SPOT shares its expertise with partners across the continent and beyond. EPEX SPOT is a European company (Societas Europaea) in corporate structure and staff, based in Paris with offices or affiliates in Amsterdam, Bern, Brussels, Leipzig, London and Vienna. More than 280 companies have traded 566 TWh of electricity on EPEX SPOT and its affiliates in 2015. EPEX SPOT is member of EEX Group, part of Deutsche Börse. European electricity trans-mission system operators hold 49% of EPEX SPOT through HGRT. For more information, please visit www.epexspot.com.