GOOs trading platform to offer tailored auctions

Market: Electricity
20/03/20

Malta-based renewable energy trading platform Commerg will allow individual counterparties to host auctions from the beginning of next week.

Participants will be able to hold auctions for guarantees of origin (GOOs) and power purchase agreements (PPAs) from three perspectives — as sellers, buyers, or on a more open "request for quotes" basis. The buy and sell auctions will be open for bids or offers for two hours and results will be published one hour after auction closure. A single clearing price will be set on a marginal basis — the auctions will not be settled on a pay-as-bid format. In the request-for-quotes auctions, the auctioneer picks a date and time as a deadline for participants to submit offers. They also specify how long after the deadline they need to remain firm until a decision is made on which offer to accept. Commerg then promotes the auction and controls fair process, before the results are published to all participants.

The auctions can be tailored with various details, as well as the product, including setting floor and ceiling prices, as well as whether the request would be filled on an all-or-nothing basis.

The party holding the auction can decide whether to be visible or remain anonymous. If a successful bidder does not have credit or an agreement in place with an anonymous auctioneer, the bid or offer could be dismissed at the end of the auction.

Commerg's platform, due to launch on 23 March, will be the first to offer individual counterparty auctions for GOOs and PPAs. Several countries host regular auctions through energy exchanges but the terms are centralised rather than set by individual counterparties.

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