EEX bourse to build on power and gas growth, offer new products

The European Energy Exchange (EEX) expects to build on last year's volume growth in its main electricity and gas markets and offer new products in a trend towards cleared energy trading, its chief executive said on Tuesday.
The Leipzig-based exchange, part of Deutsche Boerse group , is gaining market share from wider over-the-counter (OTC) markets, which have lost some of their attractiveness due to tighter regulation and default risks.
Growth rates in the exchange's main market, German power futures, have been in the order of 5 percent on an annual basis over the past five years, Chief Executive Peter Reitz said.
"There is no reason why we shouldn't keep up that rate in 2017," he told Reuters in an interview during the annual E-World trade fair in Europe's biggest energy market.
The German power futures contract gained 53 percent in volume last year to turn over 2,665 terawatt-hours - more than five times Germany's annual consumption.
Reitz said ease of use and after-trade services were helping to win customers, as did narrow bid-ask spreads, which he said encouraged customers to trust the bourse price.
EEX Group integrated the Prague-based Power Exchange Central Europe (PXE) last year.
In France, it has gained a market share of around a third of power trading, and the same in Spain, where it is the biggest bourse. In Italy, the share reached 63 percent, Reitz said.
Turning to gas trading, he pointed to moves by Paris-based EEX unit Pegas to expand one-stop shopping in wider Europe. Pegas last year integrated the Austrian Central European Gas Hub (CEGH) and Danish Gaspoint Nordic.