On 10 June 2015, the constitutive meeting of the new Exchange Council of the European Energy Exchange (EEX) was held in Leipzig. At the meeting, the members of the Council re-elected Peter Heydecker, Vitol SA, as the chairman of the Exchange Council. The Exchange Council elected Michael Redanz, MVV Trading GmbH, Andrea Vittorio Siri, Edison Trading S.p.A. and Bernhard Walter, EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG as deputies with equal rights. The election for the new Exchange Council was held on 7 May.
The focus of the deliberations at the Exchange Council meeting was on the introduction of new products on the power market. These include the “Cap Future”, a financially settled Derivatives Contract developed by EEX in view of the market which has developed further in the context of the energy turnaround. As a result of the increasing feed-in of renewable energies, price peaks on the Intraday Market are expected to increase in future. The Cap Future will enable trading participants to trade these price peaks on the Derivatives Market. For example, direct marketers of wind energy can use it to hedge against high prices for compensating purchases in the event that the wind yield is lower than expected. Furthermore, operators of conventional, highly flexible power plants can secure the price peaks to be expected as a result of such a situation in advance. For these market participants, the Cap Future emulates the characteristics of a capacity instrument on the energy-only market. An Intraday index provided by EPEX SPOT will form the underlying of the new Cap Future.
EEX is planning to launch the Cap Futures in the third quarter of 2015 and will offer contracts for the current week as well as the next four weeks.
In addition, the Exchange Council adopted the resolution to introduce financially settled power futures for Belgium and the Netherlands. With this move, trading participants will be able to trade price difference between these markets and the very liquid neighbouring markets in Germany and France via so-called Location Spreads. Since September 2013, EEX has offered physically settled Power Futures for Belgium and the Netherlands. The Exchange Council welcomes the product launch for Belgium and the Netherlands since these new financial products contribute to increasing liquidity on these markets and making these markets more attractive for participants from the financial sector. The financial Belgian and Dutch power futures will be launched on 22 June 2015.
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 who are represented by 19 elected members from five different voting groups, four representatives from associations are present. In addition, one representative of energy science belongs to the Exchange Council. This representative is still to be elected by Council. 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.