Paris 12 January 2011. The European Power Exchange, EPEX Spot, ended the year 2010 by having completed seminal projects that further integrate the European power market. Trading volumes increased significantly. 279 TWh were traded on EPEX Spot markets, which corresponds to a 37 percent increase compared to the previous year (203 TWh).
Day-ahead Markets
The 2010 trading volume in the Day-ahead auction for the market areas Germany/Austria, France and Switzerland on EPEX Spot accounted for 267,4 TWh. Amongst other aspects, the increase on the Day-ahead market is due to marketing on EPEX Spot of quantities of power generated from renewable sources of energy. The market has reacted remarkably by adapting to the new situation created by an amendment to the German EEG law in force since 2010. The auction volume can be broken down as follows:
| Areas | Volume 2010 in MWh | Volume 2009 in MWh | Average Base Price 2010 / 2009 Euro/MWh |
| DE/AT | 205,479,149 | 135,601,265 | 44.49 / 38.85 |
| FR | 52,629,636 | 52,648,347 | 47.495 / 43.012 |
| CH | 9,324,648 | 8,007,362 | 51.02 / 47.92 |
A decisive step towards the integration of the European power market has been taken with the implementation of market coupling projects. On 9 November 2010, the electricity markets of Central Western Europe (CWE) have been successfully coupled: Germany, France and the Benelux countries by price coupling, and these with the Nordic electricity markets by interim volume coupling. This unprecedented achievement, realized in close cooperation with other exchanges and transmission system operators during three years, allows the optimal use of cross-border capacity and favors price convergence. For the period of 10 November to 31 December 2010, a 55% price convergence rate was observed on the French and German EPEX Spot markets. This achievement corresponds also to the market participants’ demand for a progressively emerging integrated price zone in Europe.
The coupling of EPEX Spot’s Day-ahead market has considerably been facilitated by the new EPEX Spot Trading System (ETS) introduced on the French market in June 2010 and launched in the German/Austrian market area in September. Since then the auctions in all market areas are operated on a unique trading system that has proven to be user friendly and fast. ETS is also used by the newly established Hungarian partner power exchange HUPX: Since the month of July, EPEX Spot operates the Hungarian market for HUPX. “The innovation ETS stands for is an international service offered by EPEX Spot and open to all European markets”, Jean-François Conil-Lacoste, CEO of EPEX Spot, stated.
Since October 2010, EPEX Spot and EEX are jointly calculating and publishing the European Electricity Index: ELIX is an essential benchmark price of the European single power market, as it is the market price that would result in a physically unconstrained market environment. ELIX shows not only the benefit of further market integration, but also the “European benchmark set by the Franco-German cooperation on the power market”, as Chancellor Merkel witnessed in a video-conference with EPEX Spot’s CEO Jean-François Conil-Lacoste, sending thus a strong signal of recognizing the role of the power exchanges in the ongoing European integration process.
Intraday Markets
Another benchmark has been set by integrating the French and German continuous Intraday Markets run by EPEX Spot. Since December 2010, both markets are operated by a single trading system, ComXerv. It paves the way for quicker and more flexible integration of the Intraday markets in Europe, closer to the needs of market players and other stakeholders. Cross-border trading is facilitated, increasing overall liquidity in the market place.
During the year 2010, the Intraday Markets displayed a particularly good development. The total trading volume amounted to 11,271,468 MWh, including:
- Germany 10,244,153 MWh, which represent an increase by 81 percent in comparison to the previous year (5,662,044 MWh)
- France 1,027,315 MWh, which remained unchanged in comparison to the previous year (1,018,189 MWh).
As an exchange at the heart of the European electricity system, covering an area of 1200 TWh of yearly power consumption covering 40 percent of the EU’s electricity market, EPEX Spot is driving forward these projects. The ultimate goal, however, is to establish a single market in which European consumers can benefit from more efficient use of the power system, better social welfare and higher security of supply at a competitive price.
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EPEX Spot SE organizes and operates the power spot markets for France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland (Day Ahead and Intraday). Together these countries account for more than one third of the European electricity consumption. EPEX Spot is a Paris-based company under European law (Societas Europaea) with a branch in Leipzig. EEX and Powernext each hold 50 percent in the joint company, in which they have integrated their entire spot power trading activities. The number of trading participants licensed for trading on EPEX Spot increased from 183 to 192 companies in 2010.