EEX Jumps Into Nordic Power Market With New Liquidity Push—Because What’s Energy Trading Without a Little Artificial Spark?

Europe’s energy traders are about to get a fresh playground—and another excuse to print ‘market-making’ on their annual reports.

The European Energy Exchange (EEX) is rolling out a liquidity program for Nordic power contracts, aiming to grease the wheels of a market that’s already Europe’s most volatile. Because nothing says ‘stable investment’ like betting on Scandinavian weather.

No details on incentives yet, but expect the usual cocktail of fee waivers and rebates—the financial equivalent of free drinks to lure punters into the casino.

Will it work? Maybe. But if past schemes are any indicator, the only guaranteed winners will be the algo-traders and their ever-faster bots.

The European Energy Exchange (EEX) will introduce a series of tailored measures to strengthen liquidity on the Nordic power markets from 1 September 2025.

The wider initiative comprises the following elements:

• Trading fees related to all EEX Nordic Power Futures products will be waived for a full year.
• Additionally, initiators of a transaction in the orderbook will receive incentives for a full year covering at least their upcoming clearing costs.
• New market making schemes will be launched to drive forward liquidity growth across all available EEX power products for this market.
• Finally, for an additional kick-starter phase of four months, attractive additional incentives will be provided for the creation of open interest via trade registration

Peter Reitz, CEO of EEX, comments: “It’s been far too long that the liquidity on the Nordic power market stayed below its potential. With clarity on the future market setup, we aim to restore the long-term trust this market deserves and reinstate the previously seen substantial trading volumes. Our product portfolio already addresses the needs of all trading participants no matter what their strategy, while our well-established clearing services offer significant benefits through capital efficiency on margining. With the new measures, we want to emphasise our commitment to the Nordic power trading community and deliver on our pledge to bring liquidity back to the region.”

EEX’s product offering for the region includes both Nordic System Price contracts, the so-called Zonal Futures with price determination for each Nordic delivery area, and an economic equivalence to EPADs, a combination of Zonal Futures and the Nordic System Price Futures, which provides the benefit of the location spread effect. This setup will reduce capital requirements through cross-margining effects.

To get even closer to the Nordic trading community, EEX has now also established offices in Oslo and Stockholm.

Source: EEX