Consultation paper: Improving visibility of competition in the OTC contract market

To enhance the Electricity Authority's monitoring of the over-the-counter (OTC) market we are proposing to regularly monitor the requests for buying contracts and responses to those requests

The proposal is intended to improve the transparency of, and competition in, the OTC hedge market to drive greater retail competition. Improved retail competition increases downward pressure on electricity prices and provides more choice for consumers.

The proposal is aligned with the findings from the Risk Management Review and the recommendations from the Market Development Advisory Group.

We are seeking stakeholder views and feedback on our proposal to require all retailers (including gentailers) and large industrials (who buy electricity from the clearing manager) to regularly provide the Authority with their OTC requests for buying contracts (bids) and responses to those requests (offers).

We propose to publish aggregated (or non-identifiable) information such as offer rates, the proportion of requests that resulted in a trade, and offered prices and volumes.

We propose to use clause 2.16 of the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010 to regularly collect information on bids and offers on an ongoing basis. We were previously collecting most of this information via a section 46 notice, which had limited duration (only collected information until the end of 2024).

Submissions are open until 5pm, Monday 26 May 2025.

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