Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why is EXAA a settlement and clearing agent?

To operate a power exchange in Austria, a commodities exchange license issued by the Austrian Ministry of Economics and Labour is required. Wiener Börse has been issued such a license. For this reason, a cooperation model was developed in which Wiener Börse charged EXAA, as an independent legal entity, with the operation of trading in energy products in the meaning of a settlement and clearing agency as defined by Article 26 par. 3 Austrian Stock Exchange Act.

2. Who are EXAA’s shareholders?

Click here to go to the list of EXAA’s current shareholders.

3. Does Austria need its own power exchange?

The question is frequently asked, of course: “How many electricity exchanges does Europe need?” EXAA is the exchange for the Austrian market. This is shown by the fact that the clearing prices determined on EXAA reflect the structure of the power suppliers in Austria. Moreover, EXAA would like to enable smaller energy suppliers and municipal electricity utilities to access the liberalized market through the exchange.

4. Is EXAA the central counterparty?

EXAA plays the role of central counterparty risk for the financial settlement and clearing of trades. EXAA acts as a neutral market organizer and as a risk manager for EXAA’s trading members.

5. Why does EXAA use the smart system?

The company smart technologies developed a fully Internet-based electronic trading system for EXAA. The simple Internet interface, which can also be easily mastered by electricity traders unaccustomed to computer trading, is designed to remove the entry barrier for “new“ market participants to this new genre and create an inexpensive marketplace. The fast and non-bureaucratic adaptations accomplished by smart technologies made it possible to set up a fast, flexible and efficient Austrian power exchange. As product development takes place on site, any changes that become necessary can be quickly identified and notified to the system operator.

6. What happens when an exchange member defaults on payment?

If an exchange member is unable to meet financial obligations, the collateral deposited with EXAA is used to cover the required payments. The risk management of EXAA guarantees that every exchange member always has sufficient collateral on deposit.

7. Why does the EXAA use an auction system?

The double-auction bidding system used makes it possible to bundle supply and demand at a certain point in time. The closed orderbook keeps the possibilities of influencing the market at a minimum. Thus, the auction principle is an inexpensive and simple system.

8. What hardware and software do I need?

9. How secure is the data transmission?

As it is based on an Internet connection, no additional costs are incurred, and the implementation of a firewall and a Certification Authority (CA) blocks access for non-authorized users.

10. What is the minimum trading volume?

The minimum trading volume is 0.1 MWh/h. As of this volume, prices can be entered in intervals (tick size) of EUR 0.01 and volumes of 0.1 MWh

11. When does the auction take place at EXAA?

The auction at EXAA takes place on every exchange trading day at 10.15 hrs.

12. Until when can orders be modified?

According to the currently valid trading rules, bids can be placed and/or modified on every exchange trading day between 8.00 and 10.12 hrs.

13. What is the benefit of being able to enter step orders and linear orders?

The EXAA trading system permits users to enter step orders as well as linear and market orders. Step orders are progressive buy or sell orders that are entered with one or several price limits. Step orders permit trading participants to precisely fix prices and volumes.

14. How can I see if my order has been saved to the EXAA database?

The orders sent electronically via the Internet are considered as received for legal purposes when the orders have been accepted by the trading system (the database) and can be retrieved from there. Orders that are registered in the trading system, but not yet sent to the database are displayed in italics. Once the orders have been saved to the EXAA database, they are displayed in block letters.

15. In which control areas is trading on EXAA possible?

The EXAA supply areas are the three Austrian trading zones (APG, TIWAG and VKW) as well as two control areas in Germany, namely, E.ON and the RWE zone. Trading on EXAA is possible for all five supply zones.

16. Is EXAA a balance group?

As EXAA acts a central counterparty for trades only between exchange members, it is impossible for balancing energy to arise within the EXAA balance group. For this reason, EXAA is a special balance group. This means that EXAA does not need to pay any clearing fees to the Balance Group Coordinators.

17. If I am a trading member in Austria but not a Balance Group Representative, does my Balance Group Representative send the schedules to the clearing agent?

Generally, EXAA sends all schedules to the Balance Group Coordinators (clearing agents) for all trades concluded on EXAA. EXAA also sends the same schedules at the same time to the respective Balance Group Representative, who for controlling purposes sends the schedules to the Balance Group Coordinator again. Should the schedules differ, then the schedule sent by EXAA is deemed the registered version.

18. Why does EXAA have a balance group for every control area?

EXAA is active in all three Austrian control areas. Depending on the order situation, there may be schedules that overlap more than one control area, but according to the market rules, only 1:1 registration is permitted. For this reason, EXAA has set up a separate special balance group for each control area. Furthermore, EXAA has also set up a balance group in the E.ON and RWE control areas. This means that EXAA trading participants may place orders in all five control areas.

19. What happens in the event of physical default of an exchange member?

Generally, the physical fulfillment of trades executed on EXAA is controlled by the clearing agents. This means that in the event of non-fulfillment of an EXAA trade, the respective trading participant receives or delivers balancing energy and such volume is charged or credited by the clearing agent.

20. Which accounts do I need to maintain with the financial settlement and clearing agent?

Generally, every exchange member must maintain an account for depositing collateral with the financial settlement and clearing agent. Moreover, an exchange member may open a clearing account with the financial settlement and clearing agent; however, an Austrian bank account with an automatic debit order with guaranteed value day (trade day +3) is also sufficient.

21. Can I use the same collateral account for APCS and EXAA?

As these are separate institutions, separate collateral accounts must be maintained with the financial clearing agent for APCS and EXAA.

22. How is the collateral computed?

The computation of the collateral is done separately broken down by proprietary trading account and agent account. The traded volumes are netted within one account category, with the netted traded volumes + trading volume fluctuations resulting in the collateral required for each account category. The entire collateral requirements result from the addition of the collateral required for each account category.

23. How and when do I receive the daily information on the financial settlement and clearing, and how much collateral I must keep on deposit?

All trading participants receive all information regarding the level of exhaustion of the collaterals per account category, account status, etc. as of 8.30 hrs on the next trading day via Internet access of OeKB. Trading participants must log onto the Web application of OeKB with a separate password and to inform themselves how much collateral has been used. Additionally, trading participants must separately print out the invoices for buy and sell trades, and for fees.

24. Why do I have to pay a registration fee as a trader?

The fees for exchange traders are EUR 100 per calendar year. The reason for this registration fee is, on the one hand, that exchange members will only appoint those traders that actually trade, and on the other, EXAA is always informed which traders are employed by which exchange members.

25. What are the fees for the electricity spot market?

The membership joining fee is EUR 10,000 and the annual business fee is progressive ranging from EUR 7,500 to EUR 15,000 (base fee of 7,500/year plus EUR 25 per traded GWh; maximum fee EUR 15,000). This annual fee covers the maintenance of one proprietary and one agent account for a control area. There is an additional transaction fee of 0.075 EUR/MWh.

26. What is a CO2 certificate?

With the allocation of emissions certificates, which for simplicity’s sake we refer to as CO2 certificates, EU member states authorize the operators of industrial plants to emit one ton of carbon dioxide or an equivalent volume of another greenhouse gas with the same earth-warming capacity.

27. Who can trade in CO2 certificates?

Apart from the registration as a market participant for CO2 trading on EXAA, an account must be maintained with one of the European registries that administer CO2 certificates.

28. Which products are traded on the CO2 market?

Currently, the CO2 certificates of the first period 2008 to 2012 are being traded.

The trading with CERs and ERUs will start if the connection from the CITL to the ITL system is done.

29. When are CO2 products traded?

At present, trading takes place weekly on every Tuesday at 14:00 hrs in an auction.

30. What does trading in CO2 certificates cost?

In order to enable as many companies as possible to take part in trading, EXAA makes an effort to keep the costs of participating in trading as low as possible. As of 2008 we introduced a new and attractive fee structure:
- Zero entry fee
- Zero annual fee
- No fixed collateral deposit
- No account fee
- Minimal transaction fee
- 2 € cent (0,02 €) per traded ton

31. Are products from the second allocation period of 2008 to 2012 trading in the CO2 market of EXAA?

Yes. From 31 ^st of April, 2008.