International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) has confirmed that it will introduce baseload and peakload electricity futures contracts, for the second time, in September this year (see FO Week Vol 9 No 19).
The exchange officially announced the launch last week, confirming that the contracts will be solely traded on the WebICE electronic platform, will be physically deliverable and will be cleared through LCH Clearnet.
The exchange has launched power futures before but was forced to abandon them in March 2002 due to lack of market interest. Asked why the exchange thought the contracts would prove successful this time round, Jason Labrooy, of IPE's market development department, said that he believed the main advantage will be...