All about Power trading

Power trading refers to purchasing and selling power between participants in the energy industry . Various forms of power trading are possible depending on the market design, ranging from short-term trading to long-term power purchase agreements.

For several months, the German power exchange prices have been moving in only one direction: straight up. In an interview with our electricity trader Jan Egidi, we take a closer look at this development and talk about the implications of this trend for the German renewables industry.

Since the beginning of the corona crisis, negative power prices have become quite common for electricity traders: In this blog, we explain how negative electricity prices develop and what is positive about them.

Good solar forecasts create significant added value. They optimize sales for photovoltaic assets, which leads to lower balancing and control reserve costs. Complicated algorithms working in the background ensure that the forecasts are as accurate as possible. They process large volumes of data from multiple sources so traders are well-positioned on the market.

In terms of the underlying concepts, an energy-only market is the opposite of a capacity market. An energy-only market only compensates power that has been produced. A capacity market, on the other hand, compensates the mere readiness, or capacity, for power production. 

To ensure supply is guaranteed, the energy-only market is supplemented by various flexibility options, such as control reserve markets. Beyond that, there are usually additional reserve models similar to a capacity market aimed at guaranteeing supply.

If you have additional information that may be useful to enhance this list or if you find errors in this list, please write us at info@next-kraftwerke.com. And please do also write us in case you are looking for an energy trader, we may already be active in the region you are looking for…

Winter storm Axel, which set the current wind energy record in Germany, was also the source of a large wind power excess in Germany – and a considerable amount of hydrogen gas for the municipal utility company in the town of Hassfurt. There, the power-to-gas (PtG) installation, owned jointly by the city utility and Greenpeace Energy, stored the excess and particularly cheap wind energy in a matter of seconds as hydrogen wind gas.