Almost half of the energy consumed in January was traded on OPCOM exchange

About 45% of energy consumed at national level in January 2013 was traded on the specialized exchange – OPCOM -, according to a communique of the market operator. “Overall, transactions on the day-ahead market and deliveries on futures market in January represent 2.3TWh, providing a coverage of 45% of consumption, percentage that is expected to become majority, given deliveries already contracted on the Centralized Market for Bilateral Contracts, which exceed in certain months of the year 26% of domestic consumption, as well as the favorable context of liquidity consolidation and the signals of price ensured by the continuation of the staged process of electricity regulated tariffs elimination”, the communique reads. On the day-ahead market, transactions reached absolute maximums both in terms of the total amount traded, 1.2TWh (1,604MWh/h) and of the 24% share represented by monthly transactions in national consumption, compared with the previous records achieved in December 2012 the increase amounting to approximately 20%. Results on the first trading month on the day-ahead market are supported by the series of daily records posted amid an increased interest of participants, of which we can exemplify the day of January 16^th 2013 (total traded volume: 47,892,101MWh, respectively an hourly average of 1,995.504MWh/h; maximum hourly volume traded: 2,378,326MWh/h, for more than half of the hourly intervals of the same day the transactions volume exceeding the threshold of 2,000MWh/h; DAM share of around 28.5% of the net national consumption, the second maximum established since the launch of the mechanism in June 2005). Futures trading also posted record values, the month of January 2013 indicating deliveries of approximately 1.1TWh, exceeding for the first time the threshold of 1mln MWh, respectively a share of 21% of the national consumption, amid an unprecedented interest for using these products.