30-minute continuous Intraday trading successfully launched in France, Germany and Switzerland
450.45 MWh traded in first 24 hours
Leipzig / Paris, 30 March 2017.
The European Power Exchange EPEX SPOT and the clearing house European Commodity Clearing (ECC) have successfully introduced 30-minute continuous trading of power spot contracts in the intraday markets in France, Germany and Switzerland, enabling local and implicit cross-border trades on the respective borders. 450.45 MWh have been traded during the first 24 hours, with 118.65 MWh in France, 328.20 MWh in Germany and 3.6 MWh in Switzerland. Cross-border trades accounted for 48% of the total traded volume.
Cross-border capacity allocation in 30-minute-sequences by the Transmission System Operators (TSOs) Amprion, RTE, Swissgrid and TransnetBW was already possible since 2015. As the central counterparty of all EPEX SPOT transactions, ECC assumes clearing and settlement of the new contracts.
The new 30-minute contracts on the continuous Intraday markets are designed to manage emerging flexibility challenges of power markets more efficiently. Until now, the smallest time unit traded on the French Intraday Market was fixed to one hour. “This product brings a true benefit to our customers. The introduction of the 30-minute contracts will help French, German and Swiss market participants to fulfil their balance requirements towards the French transmission system operator and will give further trading possibilities with the German and Swiss members” explains Jonas Törnquist, Chief Operating Officer of EPEX SPOT.
The local trading of half-hour contracts for the next day opens at 15:30 in France, Germany and Switzerland, right between the opening of the hourly and quarterly contracts at 15:00 and 16:00 respectively. Local trading closes 30 minutes before the start of delivery in France and Germany and 60 minutes before the start of delivery in Switzerland.
The timings of cross-border trading of half-hour contracts are aligned with the timings of capacity allocation on the Franco-German and Franco-Swiss borders, meaning cross-border trades open at 18:00 for the German-Swiss border and at 21:05 for the Franco-German and Franco-Swiss borders.
-ENDS
The European Power Exchange EPEX SPOT SE operates physical short-term electricity markets in Central Western Europe and the United Kingdom. The creation of a pan-European power market is what defines EPEX SPOT’s mission. In 2016, its 278 members traded 529 TWh – a third of the domestic consumption in the eight countries covered. 49% of its equity is held by HGRT, a holding of transmission system operators. EPEX SPOT is part of EEX Group. For more information, please visit www.epexspot.com.
European Commodity Clearing (ECC) is the central clearing house for energy and related products in Europe and part of EEX Group. As a central counterparty, ECC assumes the counterparty risk and, therefore, provides security for its customers. Currently, ECC applies clearing as well as physical and financial settlement for transactions concluded on the exchanges of EEX Group as well as on HUPX and NOREXECO. Through clearing of all contracts via one clearing house, participants benefit from significant margin savings.