Trading exchange to help reform Greek power market

Greece plans to launch a power trading exchange next year to reform its electricity market in line with European plans for an interconnected energy grid which will help cut costs and improve energy security, it said on Tuesday.

Greece’s wholesale electricity market is currently based on a mandatory pool system.

Power producers may enter into bilateral contracts but those are constrained within the pool.

The trading exchange would help boost competition, secure transparency in power sales and eventually lower prices for households and businesses, Energy Minister Giorgos Stathakis told a news conference.

“We are hopeful that the transition to the new model will take place… in mid-2018,” he said.

Greece and the European Commission have been preparing a study, expected to be ready by the end of the year, on how the new market will operate, he said.

The country’s market operator (LAGIE) and the Athens Stock Exchange agreed last week to jointly help set up the exchange, which will be based on a day-ahead, an intraday, a forward and a balancing market.

Initially, they plan to set up a clearing house.

LAGIE’s chief executive officer, Michalis Filippou, said the aim was also to boost liquidity for businesses which would be siphoned into investments.

[Reuters]