EPEX SPOT: Increasingly Trusted to Keep Europe’s Power Moving

Electricity cannot be stored easily, but it can be traded, and that simple fact underpins the security of Europe’s energy system. Trading allows power and gas to move efficiently across borders, helping the continent draw on its diversity of supply, and ACER has estimated that cross-border trade in integrated electricity markets generated roughly €34 billion in welfare gains in 2021. Behind those gains sit exchanges that match buyers and sellers every hour of every day, and few are more central than EPEX SPOT.

The business was formed in 2008, when the power spot trading activities of France’s Powernext and Germany’s EEX were brought together, and it is now part of the EEX Group with its headquarters in Paris. It operates under what it describes as a unique governance structure, designed for the critical role it plays in the energy system. That role has only grown as renewable generation, cross-border flows and market coupling have reshaped how electricity is priced and delivered.

Today the exchange offers trading across the whole electricity value chain. Day-Ahead trading covers 16 countries, while its Intraday market, which also spans 16 countries, is the largest in Europe and among the most liquid. Alongside trading, EPEX SPOT provides market data through the EEX Group Webshop, e-learning, market access and software provider programmes, consulting, and REMIT and MAR reporting services. Its Localflex© solutions, meanwhile, extend the same market principles to local grids.

The numbers speak for themselves. So far in 2026, 1,250 TWh, with buy and sell volumes combined, has traded on EPEX SPOT’s Day-Ahead and Intraday markets. That combination of scale, liquidity and product range explains why traders, utilities and system operators across the continent rely on the exchange, and why it keeps investing in new technology and new geographies.

BALTIC GROWTH

The most recent expansion has taken EPEX SPOT further into the Baltics. Together with clearing house ECC, the exchange launched the SIDC Intraday Auction in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in September, followed at the end of the month by the SDAC Day-Ahead offering. The launches build on the introduction of Intraday Continuous trading in the region in November 2025, and they are made possible by the Baltic Multi-NEMO Arrangement, which allows more than one power exchange to operate in the market in line with the EU’s capacity allocation and congestion management guideline.

The result is a complete offering. “This launch completes EPEX SPOT’s spot power market offering in the Baltics,” said David Assaad, Director of Marketing and Customer Solutions at EPEX SPOT. “With Day-Ahead and Intraday Auctions joining last year’s Intraday continuous launch, Baltic participants get the full trading suite already available across our other European markets. We’ve seen in other Multi-NEMO markets that competition between exchanges benefits the market as a whole – sharper pricing, deeper liquidity, better service. We look forward to the same dynamic to play out here.”

Clearing is a vital part of that picture. ECC handles clearing and settlement for the new auctions, giving the trading community risk management and post-trade support. “Extending ECC’s clearing services to support EPEX Day-ahead and Intraday auctions in the Baltic region marks an important milestone for a further integration of this region into the European internal energy market,” added Dr Ralf Prinzler, Interim CEO and Chief Risk Officer of ECC. “We are looking forward to providing enhanced risk management, including secure and efficient post-trade services for the trading community.”

BATTERY BENCHMARKS

As storage becomes a larger part of the system, EPEX SPOT is also helping the market to value it. In July, the exchange launched the TBx Index Suite, a set of daily indices designed to reflect the price spread a battery or other storage asset can capture within a day. The TB2 index is calculated as the average of the eight highest-priced 15-minute Day-Ahead intervals minus the average of the eight lowest, while TB4 applies the same method to the 16 highest and lowest intervals. Both include negative and extreme prices and are available by subscription through the EEX Group Webshop.

The aim is to give storage operators, traders and investors a neutral reference point. “While these pricing structures are not new to bilateral agreements, for instance, they currently lack a neutral and trusted third-party reference,” said Lukas Gresnigt, CEO of EPEX SPOT. “With the TBx Index, we set a new standard for flexibility valuation and position ourselves as the reference provider for storage-linked price benchmarks in European wholesale markets.”

The same thinking is driving the growth of Localflex©, the platform EPEX SPOT operates for UK Power Networks. Launched in April 2024, it allows the distribution network operator to procure flexibility from batteries, electric vehicles, heat pumps, industrial loads and generation units in place of costly grid reinforcement, using a transparent, technology-neutral framework in which providers of any size compete on equal terms. In June, the platform passed more than 300,000 active assets connected.

“Reaching this milestone reflects UKPN’s strong commitment to making local flexibility an integral part of day to day grid optimisation,” commented Gresnigt. “Supported by Ofgem, the energy regulator for Great Britain, and its forward looking approach to innovation, this market based framework demonstrates how local flexibility can scale efficiently. With the right regulatory encouragement and operational focus, local flexibility markets can deliver tangible benefits for system operators, flexibility providers and consumers alike, serving as a model for other markets.”

For UKPN, the milestone confirms that customers are ready to play their part. “The continued growth of our Local Flexibility Market shows that customers of all types are willing and able to provide flexibility when the right market framework is in place,” said Sotiris Georgiopoulos, Director of Distribution System Operator at UKPN DSO. “Working with EPEX SPOT, we are building a scalable solution that delivers real value to the network and supports the transition to a net zero electricity system.”

The model is now travelling. EPEX SPOT has been selected by RTE and Enedis for a local flexibility portal pilot in France and has partnered with Our Energy in New Zealand, extending a proven approach to new regulators and new grids.

The common thread across the Baltics, battery benchmarks and local flexibility is trust. Traders are often described as an early warning system that reacts quickly to new information, helps renewable investors finance projects and rewards flexible technologies, calling trading key to reaching net zero in a cost-effective way. None of that works without transparent prices, deep liquidity and reliable clearing. As Europe pursues security of supply and decarbonisation at the same time, successful trading is not a side issue but the foundation, and EPEX SPOT is investing to make sure that foundation stays strong.