2020:
The remote year
Covid-19 has shook people and businesses around the world. EPEX SPOT was well positioned and prepared thanks to its pan-European teams across the continent. But the pandemic also impacted the market itself: let’s look back at a year full of “remote” activities.
Internal impacts
EPEX SPOT’s highest priority was to guard the safety and wellbeing of our staff and to prevent the virus from spreading further while ensuring the continuity of our markets. Precautions have been taken to protect our staff, including:
- Extended working from home arrangements for all staff;
- Daily reporting on staff capacity;
- Provision of protection equipment such as masks and hand sanitisers;
- Psychological support;
- Individual quarantine for colleagues upon return from high-risk areas, where needed.
Organisational precautions have been taken with particular focus on the operational tasks that have a direct link to the continuity of the EPEX SPOT markets, for example:
- Creation of a dedicated response team;
- A daily coordination call in the early stage of the crisis;
- Elaboration of an extensive response plan;
- Creation of a substitute list for key operational staff;
- Regular reporting to internal boards and committees.
On top of this, national regulatory authorities were kept informed about the detailed contingency measures.
We thank everyone at EPEX SPOT for their dedication and their hard work under such exceptional circumstances.
Markets continue to be operated from France, Germany and the Netherlands, with alternating shifts for Market Operators. Measures are regularly reviewed for suitability in close cooperation with the Transmission System Operators and likewise with regard to the service providers of EPEX SPOT. The finalisation of the extension to the Nordic countries was done fully remotely by the teams, the first time this was achieved for a project of such a large scale.
Membership: Fully digital
In reaction to the new situation, we organised over 20 webinars and digital workshops covering topics from blocks in auction markets to Intraday M7 trading system features and REMIT.
The digitisation of our onboarding or setup forms has also been a key improvement. Our new digital form solutions facilitated the life of our clients in a fully secure and compliant way.
Our clients' satisfaction with markets and services reached 91%.
The Exchange Council shifted its meetings to video conferences. In addition to its regular meetings it held three extraordinary meetings in 2020 to discuss the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on EPEX SPOT markets and services. Our efforts proved to be successful. In the annual customer survey, general satisfaction reached 91%, driven in particular by high satisfaction of our commercial and operational services. All in all, the improvement on services despite the pandemic shows how EPEX SPOT quickly and successfully adapted to this unprecedent situation.
Impact on energy markets
The Covid-19 crisis had tremendous impacts on global energy markets: oil, gas and coal prices decreased sharply for some time. In Europe, electricity consumption also plummeted in the aftermath of the lockdowns mainly due to lower industry production. At the same time, the European power system stability and security of supply were never an issue: the power industry saw strong price volatility, but at no point were the markets endangered. All markets remained robust and fulfilled their function.
