PEGAS, the pan-European gas trading platform operated by Powernext, recorded its best annual traded volume with a total of 1,733.3 TWh traded in 2016. This represents an increase of 69% compared to 2015 (1,024.8 TWh). This development was achieved across all PEGAS market segments.
Dr. Egbert Laege , CEO of Powernext, commented:
The year 2016 was another important step for PEGAS to strengthen its role as a pan-European gas platform. Encouraged by that success, PEGAS will continue to develop the European gas markets together with the support of our members and partners in order to provide for efficient customer solutions and sustainable growth in 2017.”
Spot Markets
Overall spot trading volumes in 2016 rose to 643.5 TWh , which represents a growth of 46% compared to 2015 (440.6 TWh).
The Dutch TTF market recorded a volume of 182.7 TWh, up 47% compared to the previous year (123.9 TWh). The German NCG and GASPOOL delivery areas registered 286.2 TWh, up 47% from 2015 (194.9 TWh), including 111.6 TWh of quality specific gas products. The volume traded on the French hubs reached 137.0 TWh, which represents a 17% year-on-year increase (116.7 TWh). In addition, the Belgian delivery zones totalled 23.5 TWh in 2016, up three-fold on the volumes traded in 2015 on this specific hub (5.0 TWh).
In 2016, PEGAS successfully introduced trading for new markets and products on the spot market which contributed to the overall increase: on 17 November, physically settled Spot and Futures contracts were launched on the Danish ETF gas hub. The launch of spot and futures products for the Austrian CEGH VTP gas hub followed on 1st December.
The migration has involved the successful transfer of all Gaspoint Nordic and CEGH members to the Powernext membership which now totals 232 participants across 8 European markets. In 2016, a total volume of 3.5 TWh were traded on ETF spot products, while CEGH VTP reached 2.6 TWh.
On 30 March, hourly products were introduced for balancing purposes and portfolio optimisation in the GASPOOL, NCG and TTF market areas on the VTPs, and in the NCG market area on the locational points Elten and Vreden. Trades of hourly products totalled 8.5 TWh in 2016.
Additionally, Powernext continued its successful support to the national storage and transmission system operators. On 11 February, Storengy, the gas underground storage facility developer and operator, and PEGAS introduced an intraday balancing service under the name BETSY (Balancing Enhanced in Transmission System for You). Starting in September, PEGAS and the French natural gas transmission system operator GRTgaz announced the extension of the operating hours of the coupling mechanism between France’s PEG Nord and TRS delivery zones to weekends and bank holidays. On 1st October, Fluxys, the Belgian gas transmission system operator launched market-based balancing operations on the ZTP hub through PEGAS.
On 22 September, PEGAS enabled 24/7 trading for all spot spread contracts with the exception of ZEE/NBP. In 2016, spread transactions on all PEGAS spot markets amounted to 79.6 TWh.
Derivatives Markets
PEGAS futures market volumes rose to 1,089.7 TWh which represents an increase of 87% compared to the volume traded in 2015 (584.2 TWh).
The Dutch TTF market futures accounted for 892.6 TWh, a two-fold growth compared to the previous year (428.9 TWh). The German NCG and GASPOOL delivery areas registered a volume of 129.1 TWh up 34% from the previous period (96.7 TWh). Trading volumes on both French PEG Nord and TRS market areas reached 43.1 TWh in 2016.
In addition, PEGAS successfully launched the Danish ETF front month product in November and CEGH VTP futures contracts in December. 335 GWh were traded on ETF, while CEGH VTP registered 323 GWh.
On 17 October, PEGAS changed the opening hours of its derivatives markets from 08:30-18:00 CET to 08:00-18:00 CET to further support the trading strategies of its members. Additionally, a fourth calendar maturity was enabled for the futures segment of the TTF, NCG and GASPOOL market areas.