The European Power Exchange EPEX SPOT operates the organised wholesale market for power trading across 13 European countries. 718 TWh have been traded on EPEX SPOT in 2023 – more than one-third of the yearly European electricity consumption.

Over 380 companies, from electricity producers and suppliers to grid operators and industrial consumers, come together and place their orders on EPEX SPOT’s markets. EPEX SPOT then matches the aggregated supply and demand, in Day-Ahead and Intraday auctions and continuously, from hourly to 15-minute products.

By doing so, EPEX SPOT creates price signals which trigger decisions on all levels of the power system and optimise electricity flows across Europe. Further, they contribute to the transformation and decarbonisation of the energy sector and to the EU Green Deal via markets and contracts that foster the increasing integration of renewables.

EPEX SPOT’s markets stretch across Central Western Europe (CWE), Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the Nordics and Poland. Staff from 24 nations, based across 7 countries form a team where everyone can build on each other. This diverse team is crucial, as EPEX SPOT’s markets run 365 days a year around the clock – even during the difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic and the energy price crisis of 2021 and 2022.

EPEX SPOT’s teams share a common understanding of how to further improve as well as a crisp, clear idea of their mission. EPEX SPOT does more than match electricity supply and demand, they also contribute to security of supply for millions of people, increase social welfare and enable lower electricity prices – from industries to end consumers across Europe.

From Day-Ahead with physical fulfillment to Intraday trading, After-Market, Local Flexibility products, capacity trading and a spot auction for GOs– EPEX SPOT is a key partner in electricity trading, boosting innovation and providing a truly pan-European offer across the entire trading value chain.

Day-Ahead markets: the reference

EPEX SPOT operates daily Day-Ahead auctions in all of its markets 365 days a year. Apart from Great Britain and Switzerland, all markets are part of the European Single Day-Ahead Coupling which stretches across 24 markets. In all its coupled countries, EPEX SPOT is approved as a Nominated Electricity Market Operator. The Day-Ahead prices of EPEX SPOT have become a European reference.

Intraday markets: the performant industry leader

The Intraday markets of EPEX SPOT cover CWE, Great Britain, Switzerland, the Nordics and Poland. Intraday markets are mainly used for:

• Plan generation and adjust purchases & sales closer to delivery
• Managing forecast errors or unforeseen events
• Adjusting from hourly positions to finer granularities (30 min or 15 min)
• Offering flexible generation as a substitution for renewables
• Enabling cross-border arbitrage and trading

On the Intraday market, EPEX SPOT offers continuous and auction trading. All Intraday continuous markets run on the M7 trading system, an industry standard in terms of performance and robustness. More than two million orders are recorded every day on M7.

 Innovation: After-Market, Localflex and multilateral GOs auctions

EPEX SPOT strives to constantly create, innovate and find new solutions for the emerging challenges of a transforming power sector. They decentralise, digitise and decarbonise the energy trading sector – to remain one of Europe’s preferred power exchanges.

With the increase of intermittent production from renewables, hourly contracts can only draw a rough picture of the actual production curve. This is why already in 2011, EPEX SPOT introduced 15-minute contracts on its continuous Intraday markets. In 2014, the first Intraday auction with quarterly contracts of the following day was launched. Due to its timeframe just at the start of the continuous market at 3 pm, this Intraday auction provides a reliable price signal with regards to the production of electricity from renewables.

The After-Market is a product on the continuous trading segment enabling trading participants to adjust physical positions in the ex-post timeframe, once the final information on production and consumption is available. It can be instrumental in reducing imbalance settlement costs. The products are available on the M7 trading system – allowing participants to trade Intraday & After-Market through one trading screen.

To foster the integration of renewable energy sources and to enhance the engagement of consumers and producers in the power market, EPEX SPOT develops local flexibility markets. A neutral and transparent market platform pools local flexibility offers. Market participants gain new opportunities to value their flexible assets, system operators obtain new tools to manage congestions and optimise grid planning.

For more and more end consumers, it’s increasingly important to know where their electricity comes from, and if possible, to make a choice to switch to renewable energy completely. However, since one cannot distinguish the source of an electron once it is injected into the network, European legislation came up with a green label called Guarantees of Origin (GOs) to enable the tracking of the origin of renewable electricity. The GOs tracking system brings major benefits, the most important one being that GOs allow consumers to be certain that the energy they use stems from renewable energy sources.

To meet the market’s demand for more trading standards, increased transparency and robust price signals, on 28 September 2022, EPEX SPOT successfully launched the first monthly GOs spot auction. This new market facilitates safe and seamless GOs trading across Europe, while satisfying the variety of needs for specific or generic GOs. The innovative market design optimally pools a wide range of generic and specific needs of market participants – fostering market liquidity to enshrine the use of GOs and support the acceleration of the energy transition.

Services to other Power Exchanges

As part of their mission to create a pan-European electricity market, servicing other Power Exchanges is part of EPEX SPOT’s business model.

Market operation and coupling services in Eastern Europe

The Hungarian Power Exchange HUPX provides transparent and reliable reference prices for the Day-Ahead market in Hungary, serviced by EPEX SPOT. This cooperation contributes to the harmonisation of the trading and clearing systems in Europe, facilitating further regional integration of the Eastern European electricity market.The South East European Power Exchange SEEPEX currently offers Day-Ahead trading in Serbia. EPEX SPOT provides market operating services to SEEPEX  In December 2022, EPEX SPOT announced the go-live of the Alpine-Adriatic Danube Power Exchange – ADEX, the first regional power exchange for Central and South-Eastern Europe. Its founding members are ELES, EMS, and EPEX SPOT. ADEX was established in the way of corporate merging between BSP SouthPool and SEEPEX, with the company’s headquarters in Ljubljana and main permanent offices in Ljubljana and Belgrade. The newly founded ADEX will offer harmonized one-stop-shop spot power trading services in Slovenia and Serbia, with the ambition to extend business to other countries in the Central and South-Eastern European (CSEE) region.

The first Day-Ahead market in Montenegro was launched on 26 April 2023 by the Montenegrin Power Exchange MEPX. EPEX SPOT provided a full suite of services to MEPX in order to achieve this go-live, followed by ongoing support in operating the auction.

A further project in the Balkan region has been the launch of a brand new power market in North Macedonia on 10 May 2023. EPEX SPOT supported its partner Macedonia Electricity Market Operator (MEMO) through the full suite of system delivery, market and IT operations services. BSP South Pool, the Slovenian Power Exchange, provides clearing services to market participants in North Macedonia.

The geographical location of the country makes it a great candidate to connect with the pan-European Single Day-Ahead Coupling (SDAC). The rest of Europe would also benefit from such a connection, as a larger community of interconnected countries means higher resilience.

Servicing the Integrated Single Electricity Market in Ireland

EPEX SPOT and ECC were chosen to support the Irish transmission system operators EirGrid and its affiliate SONI to set up the new local power exchange SEMOpx, which operates coupled Day-ahead and Intraday markets in Ireland since 30 September 2018. ECC performs clearing and settlement for all transactions concluded on SEMOpx.

Governance

EPEX SPOT is a European company (Societas Europaea) in corporate structure and staff, based in Paris with offices or affiliates in Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Brussels, London and Vienna. As part of EEX Group, a group of companies serving international commodity markets, EPEX SPOT is committed to the creation of a pan-European power market. 49% of its equity is held by HGRT, a holding of transmission system operators.