In its meeting chaired on 9 March in Paris by Peter Heydecker, Head of Trading and Member of the Executive Board of Alpiq Holding AG, the Exchange Council was informed of EEX‘s strategy for the period up until 2015, which was adopted in December. The focus on four strategic directions is at the heart of this strategy: These directions comprise the expansion of the leading position of EEX on the European power market, the further development of the gas market and the establishment of a reference price for gas, gaining market shares in trading in emission rights and a considerable expansion of the business field of clearing.
The Exchange Council took note of Dr. Menzel’s resignation as Managing Director Exchange with regret and thanked him for the cooperation which was trustful at all times.
A report on the planned introduction of 24/7 gas trading was presented to the Exchange Council, which then adopted the amendments of the rules and regulations associated with this. Starting in May, EEX will offer its participants physical trading in natural gas on the Spot Market over 24 hours a day and 7 days a week without interruptions.
At this point, the Natural Gas Spot Market will comprise Within-Day, Day-Ahead and Weekend contracts with physical fulfilment of the volumes traded with delivery in the market areas GASPOOL, NCG and – in the future – TTF. In the future, the current day-ahead auction will be replaced by the introduction of continuously traded products with a lot size of 1 MW so that the range of exchange products remains attractive for small and medium-sized trading participants.
“The 24/7 offer enables companies to trade on the Spot Market of the Exchange even outside the current exchange trading hours. On account of the more flexible trading hours we can attract further quantities of control energy to the exchange and expect increasing trading activities – in particular on weekend days“, explains Oliver Maibaum, Managing Director Exchange. With this expansion EEX is consistently continuing the
expansion of natural gas trading announced on the Exchange Council in December 2010.
Furthermore, the members of the Exchange Council were informed of recent adjustments on the Derivatives Market for Emission Allowances. Since March, trading and settlement of European Emission Allowances (EUA) have been effected separately on the Primary and Secondary Market in order to ensure the highest possible degree of security for the trading participants. The Exchange Council expressly welcomes this measure by EEX and ECC as an important sign for the trading participants creating confidence in the EEX auction platform.
In the context of the separation of the Primary and the Secondary Market continuous trading in EUA futures will also be continued during the Primary Market Auction. Furthermore, EEX has combined the maturities for the second and third EU ETS Periods in one product so that the participants can now trade the price differences between the maturities (time spreads) directly.
In addition to this, EEX is planning to increase the contract size on the Spot Market for Emission Allowances from one tonne to one thousand tonnes. The higher contract size corresponds to the standard which has become established on the market. On account of this adjustment, the EEX prices on the EUA Spot Market can now also be displayed in consolidated order books, such as e.g. via the Trayport front-end. The Exchange Council approved of this amendment of the rules and regulations, which was recommended by the Working Committee Emissions. EEX is planning to implement this change in the second quarter of 2011.
The Exchange Council of EEX is an official body of the exchange under the German Exchange Act. It consists of in total 24 members who adequately represent the various interest groups and business circles: In addition to the trading participants with 19 elected members from various sectors (transmission system operators and power trading companies, municipal utilities and regional suppliers, brokers and financial service providers as well as commercial consumers), four representatives from associations and one investors’ representative are members of the Exchange Council. The tasks of the Exchange Council include, in particular, the adoption of the rules and regulations of the exchange and their amendments. In addition, its tasks comprise the appointment and supervision of the Management Board of the Exchange and the appointment of the head of the Market Surveillance Office.