Friday 24 October 2008

Electricity futures jolted into life as ETS looms

Summaries - Australian Financial Review
Wednesday 8/10/2008 Page: 37

Options on electricity futures on the Australian Stock Exchange have soared to record volumes on the back of the global financial crisis and a proposed emissions trading scheme. Analysts say trading is now more than the total electricity supply in the National Electricity Market and suggest the industry believes carbon emissions costs could cause a 40 percent increase in the cost at the wholesale level of a megawatt hour.

The Victorian electricity futures contract implies a base load price for 2011 of $67.50 a megawatt hour, compared with $48.75 in the coming year, according to figures from d-cypha Trade, the market development company for the d-cypha SFE Electricity Futures market. Dean Price of d-cypha Trade said a strong premium was evident in the futures market based on estimates of the effect emissions trading will have on electricity prices. He said there was a trend to higher prices in the Eastern Power Index for 2010, which can be traded on the Sydney Futures Exchange.

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