INTERVIEW: EEX becomes 'global powerhouse in electricity trading,' 2026 focus on margining

Germany-based European Energy Exchange has become a "global powerhouse in electricity trading," with its focus for 2026 on a new margining methodology to "maintain growth and expand into new markets" such as Japan and Brazil, the outgoing and incoming CEOs told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy.

"I'm in this job now for 15 years and 14 out of the 15 have been record years," EEX CEO Peter Reitz said in an interview at the E-World trade fair in Germany on Feb. 11.

"The only exception was 2017, when the German-Austrian power price zone was split. Since then, every year has been a record year, not always in every product in every market. In 2025, we grew in all of our significant segments."

Trading volumes in its biggest market, European Power Derivatives, rose 11% in 2025 to 9,330 TWh, driven by "an influx of financial players and higher volatility."

"Liquidity has reached a critical level and has become attractive for algo traders and commodity hedge funds," Reitz said, adding that of the over 480 market participants on EEX, about half are financial players and the other half are utilities.

"The German power market benefits most from that, but increased liquidity on the German product also spreads to adjacent markets," Reitz said, adding that a significant increase in algorithmic trading was also seen in the most liquid gas markets.

Elsewhere, "Japan is the fastest-growing power market for us and again more than doubled in 2025," Reitz said. Over 125 market participants are registered, "about half-half Japanese and international players."

Another growth focus for 2026 is Brazil.

"We have established an exchange in Brazil, we have an order book and trade registration just like in Europe. Next, we are building a clearing house, because the market there has suffered from several defaults," Reitz said.

"Bilateral trading on the platform is already working well, but the next big step is clearing," he said, adding that N5X, a joint venture including EEX Group subsidiary Nodal Brazil, has applied for a license to the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission and the Central Bank of Brazil.

New hotspots: Spain, Greece

In Europe, the focus for 2026 is the Nordics amid Nasdaq's exit and Euronext Nord Pool's new offer.

"We've rolled out a number of incentives to increase liquidity and volumes have grown significantly. The number of participants is at an all-time high; the number of orders, the number of trades, everything is growing," Reitz said.

"The EEX Nordic offering comes with certain benefits because there is capital efficiency to be gained for those who trade Nordic power and other markets," Reitz said.

Elsewhere, Spain and Greece emerged as fast-growing markets.

"PPA hedging was one of the key drivers. Spain is the leading market in hedging PPAs over the exchange and the clearing house. So we have seen a lot of long-term deals in Spain," Reitz said.

"In Greece, liquidity growth is in short-term products, monthly futures," the CEO added.

AI-driven trading strategies

Longer trading hours is less of a focus at EEX after ICE announced extended trading hours for TTF gas.

"The feedback that we're getting on this question is very differentiated. We hear a lot less need or enthusiasm for trading European power overnight, but the jury is still out," Reitz said.

However, for Japanese power, there is growing interest not just to trade Japanese power, but also to trade European power, Reitz said.

"We need to be ready for the way we build our interfaces for our customers when they come with AI-driven trading strategies. The market impact will be more driven by what's happening in the trading houses themselves than what's happening at the exchange," he said.

Clearing focus for new CEO

Reitz will step down as CEO on July 31 after 15 years in charge of EEX, handing over to Tobias Paulun, currently head of EEX's clearing house, ECC.

"Our story is not a European one. It's a global story. We're transforming power markets around the globe by exporting what we have successfully implemented in Europe. We started 25 years ago as a German power exchange. Now, EEX is a global powerhouse in electricity trading." Reitz said, noting that EEX grew from about 120 employees when he joined to over 1,300 employees across 25 offices.

A key task for the new CEO will be to "maintain growth and expansion into new markets," with power and gas trading portfolio margining becoming important, Reitz said.

"We can see a structural shift in cleared derivatives risk management following the unprecedented volatility over the past few years," Paulun said in the interview. His focus will be on the upcoming transition to a portfolio-based Value-at-Risk (VaR) initial margin model with margin comparison data for portfolios.

"By the second half of this year, we will start providing clients with technical predictions and more concrete, exemplary calculations on sample portfolios. That is to increase the gross margin benefits of people who want to reduce their collateral," Paulun said.

"We're targeting all multi-commodity traders, but all clients will benefit. With the introduction of ECC Prisma for Commodities, we are not just adopting a new model; we are reinforcing our promise of stability through better risk management," Paulun added.

EEX EUROPEAN TRADING VOLUMES (TWh)

Source: EEX (rounded to full TWh)