A spokesman for the exchange said that the market price was lower than the state regulated wholesale rate. This, he said, showed the effectiveness of the system. The market is initially limited to trading 5-15% of the country’s power output.
The exchange said that six buyers and seven sellers participated in the first session, 30 bids were placed and 13 million kWh were traded. It is expected that the number of participants will soon increase to 20. Five of the six buyers were regional units of the Russian state power monopoly Unified Energy System. The sixth buyer was for Nizhny Tagil Iron and Steel Works, managed by Evrazholding, a metals and mining concern which owns 3% of Unified Energy System.
