On 4 June 2014, this year’s second meeting of the Exchange Council of the European Energy Exchange (EEX) was held in Leipzig, chaired by Peter Heydecker. At the meeting, the current developments on the EEX markets were discussed and decisions amending the exchange contract specifications were adopted.
In this context, the Exchange Council emphasised, in particular, the development of EEX on the Italian power market, which EEX launched for exchange trading in April 2014. In the first two months, EEX recorded a volume of more than 13 TWh in Italian power futures. Of this, 2.0 TWh was traded in the exchange order book. A further 11.1 TWh were registered on EEX and, as a result, also cleared and settled by the clearing house European Commodity Clearing (ECC).
In addition, the Exchange Council adopted the amendment of the EEX contract specifications. The contract specifications contain information on the specifications and trading conditions of any given contract. They have been fundamentally revised in order to give customers a better overview of the EEX product portfolio which is growing continuously. The Exchange Council welcomes the changes since they provide customers with easier access to the contract details of the products relevant to them. EEX publishes the revised contract specifications on its website at the following link: http://www.eex.com/en/trading/rules-and-regulations.
The Exchange Council is monitoring the current discussion regarding line expansion in Germany with concern. The construction of new extra-high-voltage lines is not only necessary in order to transport renewable energies from the power generating regions in the north to the power consuming regions in the south, but also constitutes the indispensable precondition and the basis for the tried and tested German-Austrian market area. Peter Heydecker confirms: “Large border-crossing market areas constitute the basis for efficient power wholesaling. They create the required liquidity for comprehensive balancing of supply and demand and, as a result, they make an essential contribution to the integration of renewable energies on the European Single Market. Any splitting of the German-Austrian price zone entails unforeseeable risks for the power market.” In this context, the Exchange Council members recommend focusing on the target of the integrated EU Single Market in the discussion.
Peter Reitz, Managing Director Exchange of EEX, comments: “Energy trading and, specifically, the Derivatives Market might be permanently harmed by such a serious intervention in the market. This would expose trading participants with open derivatives market positions to a risk which cannot be calculated or hedged. This, in turn, would result in an enormous loss of trust in the reliability of the framework conditions and, ultimately, the functioning of the liberalised energy markets on the part of the trading participants.”
The Exchange Council of EEX is an official body of the exchange under the German Exchange Act. It consists of a total of 24 members who expertly represent the various relevant interest groups and business circles. In addition to the trading participants, 19 elected members from five different voting groups, four representatives from associations and one investors’ representative are members. The tasks of the Exchange Council include the formulation of the rules and regulations of the exchange and their amendments. The Exchange Council is also tasked with the supervision of the Management Board of the Exchange and the appointment of the Head of the Market Surveillance.