Electricity is by its nature difficult to store and has to be available on demand. Consequently, unlike other products, it is not possible, under normal operating conditions, to keep it in stock, ration it or have customers queue for it. Furthermore, demand and supply vary continuously.

Financial risk management is often a high priority for participants in deregulated electricity markets due to the substantial price and volume risks that the markets can exhibit. A consequence of the complexity of a wholesale electricity market can be extremely high price volatility at times of peak demand and supply shortages. The particular characteristics of this price risk are highly dependent on the physical fundamentals of the market such as the mix of types of generation plant and relationship between demand and weather patterns. Price risk can be manifest by price “spikes” which are hard to predict and price “steps” when the underlying fuel or plant position changes for long periods. Volume risk is often used to denote the phenomenon whereby electricity market participants have uncertain volumes or quantities of consumption or production.

The broad spectrum of wholesale power activities in Europe provides synergies with other Oil Resources activities such as coal and gas. It enables us to reinforce our cross-commodity analytical approach and to facilitate the development of structured transactions to support our customers.

From these bases we coordinate local knowledge and representation for our activities across the pan-European wholesale market. Through participation in daily, monthly and annual auctions we have built an asset portfolio of secured transmission rights with many of the continent’s key interconnectors..