Exchange Council discussed emergency measures of the exchange and further impacts of Ukraine war

The Exchange Council members are very concerned about the current market situation, and especially the reduced delivery volumes of natural gas from Russia. During the last months and weeks, EEX has been approached by various stakeholders asking how the exchange would react in case of major disruptions of gas supply in Europe. In such a case, the Management Board of the exchange is prepared to slow down the daily market ramp-up by approximately 1 to 3 hours, if required, but maintaining price transparency for all European Power and Gas Derivatives Markets. This shall give the market participants sufficient time to find a new market equilibrium and therefore to ensure a fair and orderly market. Whilst the market is suspended, the Exchange Management would ("ad hoc") consult the Exchange Council to discuss particularly the question whether "fair and orderly" markets are still provided. Further information on how the exchange deals with extreme price volatility are published on the respective websites of EEX and ECC. The Exchange Council members emphasized again the need to keep the market open to provide a price signal, especially when markets are moving.

The Exchange Council intensively discussed also the newly amended German Energy Security Law (EnSiG) and welcomed its new § 26 allowing for set-up rules by the German Federal Government for a levy system ("Umlageverfahren") to allocate additional costs of importers in case of significant reduction in total gas import volumes to German end consumers. This new § 26 will replace the right to directly adjust prices along the gas delivery chain currently foreseen in § 24 of EnSiG. This right was seen as a high risk for the natural gas market by the gas market participants as it allocates insolvency risks coincidently throughout the gas market participants. On request of the members of the Exchange Council EEX confirmed that exchange transactions are not subject to price changes according to § 24 EnSiG even in the amended version. The Exchange Council expressed its urgent hope that the German Federal Government would make use of the right for an ordinance according to § 26 EnSiG as soon as possible to replace the price adjustment clause through a levy system in order to provide clarity and legal security for the market.

Furthermore, the Exchange Council discussed the development of the EEX Japanese power market and a change of the trade registration times for this market. Two years after the launch, liquidity in this market is continuously growing and cleared volumes since launch have already exceeded 10 TWh. In June 2022, EEX achieved another record in this market with 280 transactions registered during one month. Following requests from market participants in Japan and the Asia-Pacific region, the Exchange Council discussed a proposal to shorten the trade registration window by one hour. While transactions in Japan Power Futures can currently be registered until 7:00 pm Tokyo local time (JST), most market participants in Japan where in favor to allow trade registration for EEX Japanese Power Futures only until 6:00 pm Tokyo local time (JST). The Exchange Council encouraged the Management Board of the exchange to decide upon these changes in order to meet the local trading practices in Japan.

Finally, Thomas Nilsson, Head of Proprietary Trading from Alpiq AG was elected as new member of the EEX Exchange Council.