SUBSCRIBER NOTE: Platts proposes changes for NA power indexes, assessments

S&P Global Platts is seeking feedback on a proposal to eliminate the deal count and volume thresholds used for producing North American day-ahead and weekend bilateral electricity indexes. Platts is also seeking feedback on changing the limit on transaction size.

Currently, Platts calculates a volume-weighted-average index for locations that receive reported, transactional-level information that includes at least five individual transactions from three separate sources. If the five-and-three threshold is not met, Platts assesses a price and clearly indicates an assessment has been made by not publishing any volume information.

Platts is proposing to eliminate this five-and-three threshold to produce electricity indexes.

For locations with robust trading activity, Platts would publish indexes representing the volume-weighted averages of all trades and publish volumes. For less-liquid markets, Platts would examine reported, transactional-level information to gauge whether it is representative of the day's trading activity and decide whether to publish a volume-weighted index. If Platts deems information is not representative of that day's trading activity, Platts would assess a price and not publish any volume.

Similarly, Platts only includes standard-size transactions in multiples of 25 MW when producing indexes or assessments, while trades not in multiples of 25 MW are automatically excluded.

Platts is proposing to eliminate the 25-MW standard size limit and include transactions of any size when formulating indexes and assessments. Please send all feedback and questions by November 16, 2018, to electricityprice@platts.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com.

Dependent on feedback, Platts may implement these changes as early as late January 2019.

For written comments, please provide a clear indication if comments are not intended for publication by Platts for public viewing. Platts will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request..