So-called season products can be requested for the first time on 15 February. Companies may place demand for the ten seasons (half-years) summer 24 to winter 29 for gas trading points in the EU member states and the LNG zones of north-west and southern Europe. The minimum volume for trading points in the pipeline system is 30 GWh per half-year and 1,800 GWh for LNG deliveries.
AggregateEU is handled via the German capacity platform. Until now, only monthly products for the next 15 months could be placed on PRISMA. Unlike with these short-term products, demand is not aggregated and then allocated to potential sellers. With the seasons, bidders can show their interest for each individual demand. As with the previous allocation rounds, negotiations then take place bilaterally outside the platform.
New procurement option for industrial customers
Markus Schnier, owner and managing director of the energy service provider ecotec, sees the new offer as a major step forward in terms of new procurement options for industrial customers: "Larger industrial customers are increasingly procuring as part of multi-supplier models, and the new products allow companies to find additional suppliers via the platform," he explained in an interview with energate. ecotec organises the procurement of energy for industrial companies, among other things. Schnier had already considered how industrial customers could utilise EU aggregates last year and suggested improvements to the product design to the Commission. "One of my customers will almost certainly take part in the next round, and I will recommend other customers to do so in the second round at the latest," he said optimistically.
Lack of flexibility is not a problem
Schnier believes that the issue of risk assessment by suppliers and the provision of collateral will no longer play a decisive role at the current price level. Last year, this was one of the most important issues for all potential users of the platform. For larger industrial customers, the lack of flexibility in the products is not a hurdle either: "For larger industrial customers, flexibility is no longer offered anyway or only at very unattractive prices," is his experience. Spot balancing is therefore necessary in any case. He emphasised that AggregateEU is only a supplement to other platforms and procurement channels. But in view of the thinned-out field of suppliers, every option is important.
More than 40 billion cubic metres of supply and demand have been matched in the four tendering rounds to date. However, as contract negotiations and the conclusion of contracts take place bilaterally outside the platform, this "matching" says nothing about the effective success of the platform. The companies are also not obliged to report contracts to the Commission. In mid-November, representatives of the Commission provided figures based on the first three tendering rounds at a meeting of an advisory group of energy companies and associations. The results of negotiations were reported for 46 per cent of the total volume (35 billion m³ after three rounds). Contracts had only been concluded for 0.77 billion m³ at the time of data collection. Negotiations were still taking place for a good six billion m³.