During its fourth meeting in 2006 last Thursday, the exchange council of European Energy Exchange (EEX) intensively considered the possible consequences of the current political interventions in the free competition on the electricity market. The project of a return to cheap tariff electricity prices pursued by the French government for its own large consumers - which has now been found to be inconsistent with EU law by the Constitutional Council, the highest French court of law - as well as the planned amendment of German antitrust legislation were analysed as examples. According to the exchange council the specification of regulatory framework conditions and the examination of compliance with these form tasks for the political sector; however, the establishment of price ceilings or even the specification of individual prices does not. Cost-based prices, which are frequently demanded at the moment, differ fundamentally from market-based prices established on the basis of supply and demand on the free market. The fact that, in 2006, more than 50 per cent of the trading volume on the Derivatives Market of EEX were generated by foreign trading participants for the first time clearly illustrates that single-handed national political efforts are not only questionable with regard to EU legislation but can also cause international market disturbances.
In addition to the regular detailed analysis of the market activities on EEX, the Market Surveillance Office gave a special report on its analysis of the price peak in the auction for the 19th hour on 07 November 2006. Even though all participants were of the opinion that occasional price peaks – just as much as occasionally extremely low prices are part of the normal range of prices in particular on the Spot Market with short-term orientation, the discussion also provided ideas for the further work and future reviews by the exchange council. The debate on this topic is to be continued.
In addition to these current topics, the exchange council also analysed the opportunities of exchange gas trading in Germany and supports EEX in its endeavours to continue its preparations for the launch of a Spot and Derivatives Market next year. To that end, the co-operation with the Federal Network Agency is to be intensified.
In the framework of the continued initiative for transparency, the exchange council expressly welcomed the results achieved so far in the publication of power plant data. The number of participants and the generation capacities covered have increased considerably since the last meeting; by now, the major Austrian producers have also joined the initiative. In this context, the analysis by VIK, the German Association of the Energy and Power Supply Industry, which is based on the EEX data was also discussed. The representative of VIK agreed to examine in how far the power plants operated by its member companies might also be included.
The exchange council of EEX is a body of the exchange defined under the German stock exchange act. It consists of in total 22 members: In addition to 18 representatives of the trading participants (domestic as well as foreign transmission system operators and power trading companies, municipal utilities and regional suppliers, brokers and financial service providers as well as commercial consumers), four associations (VIK - German Association of the Energy and Power Supply Industry, Federation of German Consumer Organisations – vzbv, German Electricity Association - VDEW and the Federation of German Industries – BDI) delegate their own representatives to the exchange council.
The exchange council primarily adopts the rules and regulations of the exchange; moreover, it appoints and monitors the management board of the exchange and appoints the head of the Market Surveillance Office.
