Last month the UK power market saw 24.4TWh of power traded for delivery this winter on the over-the counter market compared to just 12.5 TWh in August last year.
Icis editor Jamie Stewart said that volumes increased significantly from the typical summer lull seen last year principally due to market volatility as a result of the continuing unrest in key gas-transit state Ukraine.
But he added that market participation from trading houses acting on behalf of smaller players is also increasing to partially fill the gap left following an exodus of financial players from Europe’s energy markets last year.
As an increasing number of consumers switch to smaller independent providers there has been an increase in the use of trading houses which specialise in providing access to the market for those providers too small to participate directly.
“I wouldn’t say that these trading houses have plugged the gap left by the banks, but the market is in a better place,” Stewart said.
He added that on near-dated, or ‘prompt’ delivery contracts, there has been an increase in liquidity for volumes traded through exchanges due to the increased regulatory and compliance requirement to do so.
UK power exchange APX said that August volumes on its so-called ‘continuous market’ were 13 per cent higher than in August last year, while its auction volumes leapt 57 per cent higher than in August last year to an all-time record of 1.05TWh.