ENERGY TRADING CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE 2010

The energy sector in Central and South Eastern Europe is facing an important period of change and development. The current credit and economic crisis, the ensuing fall in energy demand, regulatory disruptions and the continuing drive toward common energy market combine into a cocktail of major uncertainties and challenges for power and gas traders in this region. Power traders are grappling with declining allocations of cross border transmission capacity, while at the same time trying to understand how a change to flow based calculation and allocation may work out in future. National electricity markets continue to display markedly different structural characteristics at the wholesale level, in spite of regulators’ efforts to bring about harmonisation. Meanwhile the next phase of European gas market liberalisation, bringing stricter unbundling rules, may mean restructuring of the regional gas industry will gather pace. More immediately the Russia-Ukraine gas crisis at the start of 2009 suddenly put the issue of energy security back at the top of the agenda. The Energy Trading Central and South Eastern European conference (“ETCSEE”) on 3 and 4 June addresses these and other critical issues affecting traders in the region and the potential profitability of their businesses.