FRANKFURT, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Prompt electricity trading
volumes on Europe's EPEX SPOT exchange in 2019 rose by 4.6%
year-on-year to an all-time high, exceeding the previous record
set in 2018 and reflecting growth in core markets, the bourse
said on Monday.
Spot electricity trading for much of western Europe on the
ten-year old exchange increased to 593.2 terawatt hours (TWh)
last year from 567.3 TWh in 2018, the Paris-based bourse said in
a statement.
That is equivalent to almost all of the annual production in
Germany, Europe's biggest power market.
During the year, the bourse focused on launching
cross-border intraday auctions between the Swiss and Italian
markets, balancing services in Britain for its National Grid,
and a voluntary flexibility scheme to prevent grid congestion in
North Germany.
In first-quarter of 2020, EPEX plans to launch day-ahead and
intraday trading in the Nordic region.
Germany/Luxembourg and France remain the two largest markets
traded day-ahead on the exchange, generating the biggest volumes
and setting benchmark prices.
Intraday power trading, a smaller segment, jumped 11.8% as
the volatility of growing renewables capacity supported demand
for power delivery within a given day.
EPEX said it registered 24 more members in 2019, bringing
the total to 302.
The bourse's is owned by EEX Group, which trades
power futures, among other products.
Following are selected volumes and prices, in euros per
megawatt-hour (MWh).
2019 2018
TOTAL VOLUME (MWh) 593,235,359 567,332,323
Day-ahead Power 501,568,782 484,987,351
Intraday Power 91,666,577 82,344,972
AVG PRICES (baseload) in €
Day-ahead DE/LU 37.67 41.73*
Day-ahead FR 39.45 50.20
Intraday DE ** 37.77 44.60
Intraday FR ** 39.74 50.94
* included Austria in 2018
** 60-minute continuous
(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Kirsten Donovan)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.