Merger of EEX Power Spot GmbH into EPEX Spot SE scheduled for the 1st September 2009
Final step of the cooperation between Powernext SA and European Energy Exchange AG (EEX) towards a common power Spot Market
Paris/Leipzig, 1 September 2009: The implementation of the cooperation between European Energy Exchange AG (EEX) and Powernext SA in power trading is approaching its aim. As of 1st September 2009, EEX Power Spot will be merged into EPEX Spot SE with registered offices in Paris. However, an operating unit of EPEX Spot SE supporting the German customers will be retained in Leipzig.
The joint company EPEX Spot SE operates the short-term power trading activities for the market areas Germany/Austria, France and Switzerland. As of 1st September an harmonised market model will become effective for the trading participants operating on these power Spot Markets.
Powernext SA already integrated its French power spot market directly into EPEX Spot SE last January.
EEX and Powernext each hold 50 percent of the shares in the joint EPEX Spot SE.
The intense cooperation between EEX and Powernext, which includes not only the Spot but also the Derivatives Market and the Clearing, is an initiator for a pan-European power market. While it is advantageous for final consumers to have many power suppliers to choose from, a cooperation of the trading platforms is desirable on the wholesale level in the interest of a uniform European single market.
EPEX Spot SE is a Paris-based company under European law (Societas Europaea). EEX and Powernext each hold 50 percent in the joint company, in which they integrated their entire spot power trading activities. The product range of EPEX Spot SE encompasses spot power trading for France, Germany/Austria and Switzerland. These countries account for more than one third of the European power consumption.
EEX operates Spot and Derivatives Markets for energy products and energy-related products. With more than 200 trading participants from 21 countries it is the energy exchange in Continental Europe which boasts the biggest number of trading participants and the highest turnover. Power, natural gas and CO2 emission rights are traded both short-term on the Spot Market and long-term on the Derivatives Market with a time horizon of up to six years into the future. Furthermore, EEX offers financially settled coal futures. Clearing of exchange and over-the-counter transactions (OTC clearing) is provided by European Commodity Clearing AG (ECC). ECC is the clearing house of EEX and a subsidiary of the exchange.
Powernext SA, incorporated in 2001, manages several complementary, transparent and anonymous energy markets: Powernext® Gas Spot and Powernext® Gas Futures were launched on November 26, 2008 in order to hedge volume and price risks from Within-Day to the next three gas seasons; Powernext® Balancing GRTgaz allows the Transmission System Operator GRTgaz to cover its daily balancing needs through a market based mechanism. EPEX Spot, based in Paris, launched on January 1st 2009 and owned at 50% by Powernext, facilitates, 365 days a year, the hourly balancing of physical power delivered the following day on the French, German/Austrian and Swiss hubs. Powernext® Futures, providing electricity prices from one month to three years, has been transferred in April 2009 to a new company dedicated to German and French power derivatives, based in Leipzig. Powernext holds a 20 percent equity stake in this company.