German wholesale power market expands-RWE Trading

FRANKFURT Jan 22 (Reuters) - Germany's wholesale power market expanded by 14 percent last year and there is no sign of a let-up, the chairman of major player RWE Trading (RWEG.DE) said on Tuesday.

"There is no reason why the growth path would end, as trust in the market increases," Peter Terium, head of the European utility group's trading division told reporters at a conference in Berlin.

He cited increased interest from energy companies and consumers but also from banks and funds, who he said were encouraged by more transparency offered by power generators.

Trading of German spot power on the Leipzig-based EEX, one of Europe's biggest energy exchanges, and in the over-the-counter (OTC) power market outside the exchange in 2007 grew to 3,200 terawatt hours, RWE estimates.

It said that in 2006, the joint volume of exchange trading and OTC was perhaps around 2,400 TWh.

While exchange-based trading is electronically recorded, bilateral OTC deals between brokers and their customers are not published, which is why the market's size can only be assumed.

Germany's power consumption is roughly 500 TWh, which means wholesale trade turns over five to six times real usage -- a sign of increasing maturity, Terium said.

RWE offers ad hoc data about its power plant operations on a website such as a live overview of future and previous outages, similar to sector peer E.ON EONG.DE.

Since Jan. 9, Vattenfall Europe VTTG.DE has also offered a transparency website.

Competitor EnBW (EBKG.DE), the fourth out of Germany's big four power producers, does not publish such data independently.

The EEX power exchange also publishes production data collected from 18 utility companies on its website, but on an aggregated basis where individual plants are not named.

Major utilities have endorsed plans by the EEX to merge with French counterpart Powernext as the two markets are converging and the move could bring cost savings and higher liquidity on the road to further consolidation in Europe's energy markets.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert)