Our US power team was established in 2020 and as a first step we entered the wholesale power market ERCOT, which covers most of the state of Texas. The high expectations for the opportunities in the market were met, and during 2021, we expanded into the MISO wholesale trading area, which covers 15 US states and the Canadian province of Manitoba, and a total population around 42 million people.
Strong Market Drivers
The US market has price drivers similar to those of Europe, and weather, natural gas prices and outages are some of the key factors determining power prices. The steady growth in renewable energy sources will underpin the growing opportunities in the market and the need for trading. We can benefit from our well-proven strategies and tools to leverage further on our platform.
Extreme Weather as a Test for Risk Management
A major event affected the power market in the state of Texas during February 2021, as very cold weather resulted in the collapse of the power supply systems and infrastructure. A total of 4.5 million homes and businesses were left without power, and power prices spiked to USD 9,000 per MWh for 4-5 days (the average price is USD 20 in a standard year). Through our positions in the market and our robust risk management approach and systems, we managed this extreme event very well.
Future
We see significant growth opportunities in the North American market and will continue to strengthen our market position and our US team in 2022.
MFT Energy’s annual report 2021 can be found here