Endesa and Iberdrola open electricity auctions to rivals
Published April 13th, 2007
Endesa and Iberdrola, the two largest Spanish power producers, said Thursday they would jointly auction power for delivery starting in July, letting banks and foreign utilities gain a foothold in the Spanish market.
The two will together sell 14.9 terawatt hours of electricity in a two-year period starting July 1, Iberdrola, based in Bilbao, said in a statement.
The Spanish government is forcing the largest utilities to sell wholesale power to increase competition and trading. The sales, known as Virtual Power Plant auctions, allow rival European utilities, including E.ON of Germany, and banks like Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria access to power even though they have no plants of their own in Spain.
The electricity will be sold in periods of three, six and 12 months for full-day supply or peak-demand, Iberdrola said. The first auction will be held in June, Iberdrola said, without being more specific. Further auctions will be held every three months until June 2008.
The power auctioned represents the equivalent capacity of a 1,768-megawatt power plant running all day every day. That is enough to supply 3.5 million average European homes.
