The price level of the year’s first of four NOME auctions, staged today, reached 41.45 euros per MWh, under the level of 45.20 euros per MWh at the previous session, last October.

It will be interesting to see what kind of market policies independent electricity suppliers will pursue following today’s result. Though a price drop, compared to the previous session, was achieved, suppliers were probably hoping for an even lower level, which would have provided additional pricing policy leeway in their efforts to capture a sizeable chunk of main power utility PPC’s dominant retail electricity market share.

Today’s session began with strong bidding that lifted the price level to 40.45 euros per MWh just over an hour into the auction.

A total of 400 MW/h was offered at today’s auction. Equivalent amounts will also be offered at the two ensuing auctions, scheduled for April 18 and June 18, while a larger amount of 511 MW/h is planned for the year’s final session, scheduled for October 17, bringing the year’s total offering to 1,711 MW/h.

Traders who had acquired electricity amounts at previous NOME auctions without having a local client base to service were excluded from today’s auction. These traders had bought electricity amounts with an intention to export.

The NOME auctions were introduced slightly over a year ago to offer independent suppliers access to PPC’s low-cost lignite and hydropower sources.