He will replace Thierry Morello, who has stepped down after more than seven years in the role.
Törnquist is currently a member of the supervisory board of EPEX Spot and the vice chairman of the board of directors for Powernext, which are both part of the EEX Group. Before that he spent 12 years working for the French energy giant EDF in London and Paris. Törnquist will take over from Morello on 18 October 2016.
Morello co-founded Powernext in 2001 and served as its chief operating officer until the end of 2008, when he took up his current position at EPEX Spot. He will stay on at the company until the end of January to aid the transition.
“We are thrilled to have Jonas joining the team”, said EPEX Spot’s chief executive Jean-François Conil-Lacoste. “With his international profile and experience, he is an excellent addition to the EPEX Spot management team. Together with Jeroen van den Heuvel, who joined in May 2015, the renewed management board will help bringing EPEX Spot forward”.
In March APX transferred the clearing of its spot markets to European Commodity Clearing – the same clearing house used by EPEX Spot. APX had previously carried out clearing for its own markets in the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium. The transfer was part of the ongoing integration of the two companies after they merged in April 2015.
EPEX Spot’s Exchange Council met in Rome last week to discuss further integration with APX as part of plans to form a single exchange for Central Western Europe and the UK.
The plans will move one step close to fruition on 27 September, when M7 – the trading system for its intraday markets in Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland – is extended to the Netherlands and Belgium, where the Eurolight platform is currently in use.
The Dutch and Belgian day-ahead markets are also scheduled to transfer from Eurolight to the EPEX Trading System (ETS) before the end of the year, although a date has not yet been set.
“One single exchange membership across the Central West European markets is an important milestone in the APX/EPEX SPOT integration and carries multiple tangible benefits for the members”, said Conil-Lacoste. The company’s ultimate aim is to create a “pan-European power market”.