Late Wednesday night, the winner of the Energy Transparency Award 2011 (ETA) was announced at an award ceremony organized by the Florence School of Regulation (FSR) in Brussels. The winner was “Energy Trade Data Reporting Scheme”, the EU project initiated by the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) and based on Scila Surveillance, the leading market monitoring system delivered by Cinnober. 

The award-winning project has gained a lot of attention for its efficiency in showing how protocol data reporting and monitoring schemes could safeguard market integrity and help prevent market abuse, and was praised as “remarkable” by the independent selection committee, chaired by Dr. Jorge Vasconcelos.

Accepting the award was Walter Boltz, the CEER Vice President who initiated this pilot project. As he put it: “This project was made possible through the strong participation of traders, brokers and exchanges who provided us with data that allowed us to do dummy runs to screen, using actual data, for possible market abuse. I’m pleased to accept this award as a tribute to the many responsible stakeholder organizations that work hand in glove with the regulators in promoting transparency.”

CEER got the award for its proactive work and contribution to the conception and implementation of transparency regulation at EU scale.

“We’re of course proud to have been involved in this project that ultimately aims at securing a well-functioning European energy market, and I think this official award underlines the importance of this pilot,” said Nils-Robert Persson, executive chairman of Cinnober. “Scila Surveillance has proved its capabilities as an efficient surveillance system in a large number of different marketplaces, and this award within the energy sector demonstrates its great flexibility as a multi-asset surveillance system.”

The liberalization and integration of European markets has lead to an increase in electricity and gas trading, and the last decade has seen a substantial growth in the number of exchanges and other trading places for European energy-related products.

Within the pilot, Scila Surveillance imported and analyzed historical trade data from selected energy exchanges, brokers and traders. The objectives were to demonstrate the feasibility of an efficient and cost-effective scheme for standardized trade data collection, storage and monitoring and the development of a concept and representative examples for the analysis of trade data.

“We have been delighted to be a part of CEER's important project for improved and sophisticated reporting and monitoring of the European energy trading markets. This is an area that has impact on us all, both individuals as well as corporations,” said Mats Wilhelmsson, COO of Scila. “Scila would like to thank all involved parties, such as E-Control and CEER, for the opportunity to play a role in this very important project, and we look forward to continuing our work in the energy markets.”

The “Energy Trade Data Reporting Scheme” project was initiated by the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER), coordinated by the Financial Services Working Group of the European Energy Regulators (ERGEG/CEER) and managed and supported by E-Control, the Austrian energy regulatory authority. For further information about the project see http://www.energy-regulators.eu

For further information about Scila Surveillance, please contact:

About the European Energy Transparency Award

The pilot project based on the Scila technology was nominated by a third party for the European Energy Transparency Award (ETA) 2011. The ETA is an annual competition that distinguishes a company or institution for its particular contribution to the transparency of energy markets in Europe.

The main purpose of the ETA is to promote the economic and technical efficiency of European energy markets through improved transparency. 2011 marks the second edition of the ETA, which is organized by the Florence School of Regulation. Nominations for the ETA may be presented by any “third party” organization or individual. CEER was one of three organizations short-listed for the 2011 award – the other two finalists were EEX (a German power exchange) and Red Electrica (a Spanish TSO). Nominations are evaluated by a three-person international and independent selection committee.

About CEER

The Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) is the voice of Europe's national regulators of electricity and gas at EU and international level. CEER works closely with, and supports the work of, the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER). See www.energy-regulators.eu.

About Cinnober Financial Technology AB

Cinnober provides mission-critical solutions and services to leading trading and clearing venues. Cinnober’s solutions are based on the TRADExpress™ Platform incorporating everything needed for mission-critical solutions in terms of performance, robustness and flexibility. The portfolio of offerings includes price discovery and matching, real-time risk management, clearing and settlement, data distribution and surveillance. Cinnober’s customers include Alpha Trading Systems, Borsa Italiana, Burgundy, Chicago Board Options Exchange, Deutsche Börse, EDX London, Eurex, Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange, London Metal Exchange, Markit BOAT, NYSE Liffe, Stock Exchange of Thailand and Quadriserv. For additional information, please visit www.cinnober.com.  

About Scila AB

Scila provides a surveillance tool built on many years of experience from both market surveillance and systems design. Scila Surveillance uses modern technology to give the customer a seamless route from detection of market abuse to presentable evidence. Scila delivers the future in modern market surveillance technology by offering the industry the most competitive solution available. Cinnober owns a minority stake in Scila AB and there is an exclusive sales agreement between the two companies. For additional information about Scila AB, please visit www.scila.se