UtiliCorp's Aquila Energy Enters Nord Pool Power Market
Aquila provides wholesale energy, risk management and commodity-related services. Aquila Energy Europe was established earlier this year using London as a base from which to expand into the European Continent. In the U.K., Aquila Energy Limited is the leading independent provider of risk management, transportation, gas supply and balancing services to retail gas supply companies. The company also operates a U.K. energy trading business and is developing a $33 million gas storage facility in Cheshire, England, expected to be fully operational next year. In May, United Gas Ltd. was renamed Aquila Energy Limited to reflect the company's European plans.
The Scandinavian region is the leading electricity market in Europe, with a 1999 sales volume in financial contracts estimated at 1,000 terrawatt-hours. Leading the development is Nord Pool ASA, the world's longest-established electricity market, formed in 1993. There are more than 200 active participants in Nord Pool, which international players, attracted by its depth and liquidity, are joining in growing numbers.
"Because of the strategic importance of Scandinavia as a European energy market and the significance of Nord Pool, this represents another key step to Aquila becoming a truly European energy player," said Richard C. Green, Jr., UtiliCorp's chairman and chief executive officer.
Aquila's Scandinavian operations will be based in Sandefjord, Norway, where Steinar Bjerke joins Aquila Energy Nordic as managing director responsible for Scandinavia. He reports to Jeff Michnowski, the London-based managing director of Aquila Energy Europe. Bjerke was previously marketing director for Interkraft Energi AS.
Aquila Energy's focus will be on both physical and financial energy trading activity across the Nordic region. The company has hired a highly experienced local electricity trading team, headed by Atle Haga who also joins Aquila Energy from Interkraft Energi, where he was head of portfolio management.
Earlier this year, in its first move into Continental Europe, Aquila Energy began operating in Spain, where it has recruited executives from within the Spanish energy industry.
"The fact that Aquila has been able to attract high-caliber senior executives to run our Scandinavian business gives us a lot of confidence," said Michnowski. "We will continue to enter new markets in partnership with local players and tapping local talent."
As one of the leading energy traders, Aquila has extensive experience managing price volatility in both physical and financial markets. For 1998 it was ranked the second largest wholesale marketer of natural gas in the U.S., and the third largest marketer of electricity. In the last two years alone, Aquila's annual power volumes have grown from 6.5 million to 121.2 million megawatt hours, a gain of nearly 1,800 percent. In the same period, gas volumes grew from 3.5 billion cubic feet a day to 9.6 billion, an increase of 174 percent.
Edited by Stephen Heiser