Spain’s CNMC tenders €400,000 system to monitor power and gas market abuse
Spain’s competition regulator is seeking a contractor to build a €400,000 surveillance system for wholesale electricity, gas and hydrogen markets. The platform will combine European and national data and generate alerts for potential market power or abusive conduct.
Regulator expands oversight ahead of winter
Spain’s National Commission on Markets and Competition, known as the CNMC, has tendered a €400,000 system to strengthen surveillance of wholesale electricity, gas and hydrogen trading. The project is intended to help the regulator detect potential exercises of market power or other abusive conduct at an early stage.
The Objective reported that the contract comes ahead of a winter that energy-sector sources expect to be difficult because of a possible rise in energy prices. The procurement was inherited from former CNMC president Cani Fernández and has been signed for the first time by her successor, Juan José Ganuza. The deadline for submitting bids is 19 October, and the contract is not financed with European Union funds.
Gas and power prices increase the pressure
The tender arrives as European energy markets face renewed supply and price risks. Reuters reported that European wholesale natural gas prices had risen by more than 140% from a year earlier after the war in Iran reduced global supplies. Low European storage levels are adding to the risk of further increases.
A study by the bloc’s central banks found that changes in wholesale gas prices are transmitted to consumer gas inflation within one to three months in more than half of euro-area countries. That transmission makes gas-market developments relevant not only to energy companies and traders, but also to policymakers tracking inflation and industrial costs.
Spanish electricity futures also indicate that the wholesale power market will remain under pressure for the rest of the year. According to the forecasts cited by The Objective, the fourth-quarter price is expected to rise by 16.4% to €127.25 per megawatt-hour. The projection reflects upward pressure from gas and uncertainty over maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Platform will unite European and Spanish data
The contract covers technical assistance to integrate information from the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, or ACER, with data collected nationally. It also includes development of a tool for supervising wholesale energy markets. The CNMC says the objective is to make monitoring of electricity, gas and hydrogen markets faster and more efficient.
According to the regulator’s justification for the contract, the provider will identify and check the quality of data received from ACER, then harmonise it with wholesale-market information collected under Spanish energy legislation. The resulting unified technical and functional architecture will support configurable alerts designed to flag possible market-power exercises or market abuse.
The system must process large volumes of information from different sources. These include bids and transactions in spot and forward electricity, gas and hydrogen markets, as well as fundamental data, urgent market messages and inside information. For producers, utilities and traders, more integrated oversight could mean earlier regulatory scrutiny of unusual bidding or trading patterns. For the CNMC, the immediate challenge is to turn complex datasets into alerts that distinguish potentially abusive activity from legitimate responses to volatile supply, storage and shipping conditions.
