Throughout the past year, the European Energy Exchange (EEX) increased its volumes on all of its trading markets and successfully developed new markets and cooperations. The year 2013 was characterised by strong growth on the Power Derivatives Market and significant increases on the natural gas and CO2 markets.
“In 2013, our activities primarily focused on growth in Europe and on expanding and further improving our offer for our customers. Examples of this include the introduction of power products in new European regions and the PEGAS cooperation on the gas market”, explains Peter Reitz, Chief Executive Officer of EEX and of European CommodityClearing (ECC).
In 2013, the volume traded on EEX’s core market, the Power Derivatives Market, increased to 1,263.9 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2013 and, therefore, by 36 percent as against the previous year (2012: 931.4 TWh). Furthermore, both the volume traded on the exchange (48-percent increase to 681.3 TWh) and the volume of bilateral trades registered for clearing on EEX (24-percent increase to 582.6 TWh) increased significantly as against 2012. Overall, EEX was able to further expand its leading position in power trading - EEX average market share in the overall market in Germany increased by a third to 20 percent in 2013 (2012: 15 percent). This data is based on the monthly figures which are published by the exchanges as well as the London Energy Brokers’ Association (LEBA).
In 2013, the volume generated in natural gas trading on EEX increased by 46 percent to 110 TWh (2012: 75.5 TWh). In this context, EEX generated high growth rates in short-term gas trading – the volume on the Gas Spot Market (GASPOOL, NCG and TTF market areas) more than doubled to 80.6 TWh (2012: 35.9 TWh). On the Natural Gas Derivatives Market, the volume amounted to 29.5 TWh (2012: 39.5 TWh). In 2013, EEX launched its PEGAS cooperation with the French partner Powernext. PEGAS gives market participants access to all gas trading products on both exchanges and, for the first time, it also gives them an opportunity to trade price differences between the market areas, so-called location spreads. Further to this, EEX expanded its offering with quality-specific gas products in October 2013. Until the end of 2013, a volume of 1,874,392 MWh has been traded in these new products.
On the EEX Markets for Emission Allowances, the total volume increased to 850.3 million tonnes of CO2, which corresponds to more than 3 times the value generated in the previous year (2012: 254.6 million tonnes of CO2). A large share thereof comes from the primary market auctions which EEX carries out on behalf of the EU Commission and of the member states taking part as well as for Germany, Poland and further European countries and regions. In 2013, a total volume of 730,970,500 EU emission allowances was auctioned on the EEX Spot Market in 214 auctions. EEX also generated growth on the secondary market. At 27.5 million tonnes of CO2 , EEX achieved a result which was 4 times higher than the volume traded in the previous year (2012: 6.0 million tonnes of CO2), while on the Derivatives Market the volume increased by 10 percent to 91.8 million tonnes of CO2 (2012: 83.3 million tonnes of CO2).
In addition to the activities on its established markets, EEX developed new markets and fields of business during the year. These activities include futures on Guarantees of Origin, which were launched in June. The purchase of a Guarantee of Origin enables energy suppliers to prove that a given megawatt hour of power was generated from renewable resources. In 2013, 466,000 Guarantees of Origin were traded on the EEX Derivatives Market.
Together with its clearing house ECC, EEX also expanded the offering for the registration of trades for clearing (“Trade Registration”) with further European energy products. In addition to Romanian power futures, traders on EEX can now also register Italian, Swiss and Scandinavian contracts for clearing. Overall, a volume of 1,098,499 MWh was registered in these products. “We are very satisfied with the launch of this segment. The feedback regarding our Italian power product shows that we addressed a need in the market and that these products are becoming increasingly interesting for our trading participants”, explains Peter Reitz. Furthermore, EEX and ECC also agreed a cooperation regarding the registration of power derivatives for clearing with the Iberian energy derivatives exchange OMIP and its clearing house OMIClear in December.
Alongside this, ECC – the clearing house for currently seven partner exchanges – has successfully initiated new co-operations and further extended its range of products and services. In 2013, ECC admitted five further banks as clearing members and won two further partner exchanges. In September 2013, it launched clearing services for the Prague-based POWER EXCHANGE CENTRAL EUROPE (PXE) and, as a result, it now covers further eastern European power and gas markets. In the course of the cooperation with the Norwegian NOREXECO, ECC will introduce clearing services for a totally new asset class - derivatives on paper and forestry products, in the future. In preparing for the new European clearing rules, ECC implemented a number of EMIR requirements in its processes and structures throughout the course of the year and submitted the application for admission as a central counterparty in compliance with EMIR in September.
“2013 was a successful year for us during which we further improved our excellent position in the energy market. In 2014, we will continue to promote the diversification of our business fields and also establish further strategic partnerships to this end“, summarises Peter Reitz on the outlook for the year 2014.
The European Energy Exchange (EEX) is the leading energy exchange in Europe. It develops, operates and connects secure, liquid and transparent markets for energy and related products on which power, natural gas, CO2 emission allowances and coal are traded. Clearing and settlement of all trading transactions are provided by the clearing house European Commodity Clearing AG (ECC). EEX is a member of Eurex Group.