The implementation of the cooperation between European Energy Exchange AG (EEX) and Powernext SA in power trading is approaching its aim. As of 1st April, Powernext Power Futures will be transferred to EEX Power Derivatives with registered offices in Leipzig.
As of that date, Powernext’s derivatives trading in French power futures will be continued via various interfaces on the Eurex trading system on EEX Power Derivatives. All trading participants who are licensed to trade on Powernext and have fulfilled the administrative preconditions for trading on EEX Power Derivatives can continue their trading activities seamlessly. A large part of the trading participants has already fulfilled these preconditions.
At the same time, the open positions in Powernext Futures will be transferred to European Commodity Clearing AG (ECC) so that ECC can assume clearing and settlement of the French power futures from 1st April 2009. In addition, ECC will ensure clearing and settlement of all products traded on EPEX Spot SE as of that time. The joint company EPEX Spot SE with registered offices in Paris operates the short-term power trading activities of both exchanges.
Moreover, a subsidiary of EEX Power Derivatives will be retained in Paris in the future. This subsidiary will support the French market customers and assume market supervision tasks. “Supporting both markets from one hand is a fascinating task“, Oliver Maibaum, Managing Director of EEX Power Derivatives GmbH, looks forward to the new era. “One trading platform, one clearing house, for the benefit of our costumers, this is the purpose of our cooperation”, says Jean-François Conil-Lacoste, CEO of Powernext and EPEX.
Once the French futures contracts have been transferred to EEX Power Derivatives, Powernext SA will receive 20 % of the shares in EEX Power Derivatives GmbH and a seat on the Supervisory Board, while EEX will hold the remaining 80 %.
EEX operates Spot and Derivatives Markets for energy products and energy-related products. With more than 200 trading participants from 19 countries it is the energy exchange in Continental Europe which boasts the biggest number of trading participants and the highest turnover. Power, natural gas and CO2 emission rights are traded both short-term on the Spot Market and long-term on the Derivatives Market with a time horizon of up to six years into the future. Furthermore, EEX offers financially settled coal futures. Clearing of exchange and over-the-counter transactions (OTC clearing) is provided by European Commodity Clearing AG (ECC). ECC is the clearing house of EEX and a subsidiary of the exchange.
Powernext SA, incorporated in 2001, manages several complementary, transparent and anonymous energy markets: Powernext® Gas Spot and Powernext® Gas Futures were launched on November 26, 2008 in order to hedge their volume and price risks from Within- Day to the next three gas seasons; Powernext® Balancing GRTgaz allows the Transmission System Operator GRTgaz to progressively cover its daily balancing needs through a market based mechanism. EPEX Spot, based in Paris, launched on January 1st 2009 and owned at 50% by Powernext, facilitates, 365 days a year, the hourly balancing of physical power delivered the following day on the French, German/Austrian and Swiss hubs. Powernext® Futures provides electricity price risk hedging for a period ranging between one month and three years; in April 2009, Powernext will contribute the French power derivatives to a new company dedicated to European power derivatives, based in Leipzig, against a 20 percent equity stake in this company.