Powernext SA's capital of 10 million euros is held by major players in electricity trading and financial markets. Euronext and a European transmission system operator holding company called HGRT, which is initially set up with the French RTE, hold 34 % and 17 %, respectively, making up a core of neutral shareholders. HGRT is an innovative concept that will allow the various transmission system operators to be represented in Powernext, in due time, and thereby establish appropriate market rules to meet European grid operators' supply security requirements. The remaining 49 % of Powernext is equally distributed among the BNP Paribas, Electrabel, EDF, Société Générale, and TotalFinaElf, who will be among the members of the exchange. In a later phase, Powernext will expand its ownership structure to include other European players.
Powernext SA's Chairman of the board is RTE's Head of system operation, Pierre Bornard. Jean-François Conil Lacoste, previously Director at Euronext , was named Chief Executive Officer of Powernext SA. The company will be based in Paris.
Studies have been conducted in co-operation with the main European actors to define a market model, for establishing an incontestable electricity price reference in France as quickly as possible. At first, Powernext will auction standard hourly contracts for physical delivery on the French hub at a given hour on the following day. Once this price benchmark is established, futures on electricity will be developed, which are preferential tools for hedging energy risks.
The hourly day-ahead contracts will be traded anonymously on the EL-WEB trading platform operated by NordPool, the Scandinavian electricity exchange that is leader in Europe and an industrial partner. Powernext members, who are French producers and foreign companies (generators, suppliers, eligible consumers, and traders) acting on their own behalf, will be able to access this through a simple Internet connection.
The transactions on Powernext will result in a physical delivery of electricity under the responsibility of RTE, and will be guaranteed financially by Clearnet, Euronext's clearing subsidiary.
Powernext will be the only power exchange to organise transactions recognised as deliverable to any point in the French electricity grid, which is considered to be a hub with no pre-set points of injection or withdrawal. This way, the traded products will have a single price schedule. The members will manage their own access to the interconnections with the Transmission System Operators concerned, for their transactions on Powernext and for their off-exchange bilateral transactions.
