Power Exchange confirms higher volume of national demand in Q1 of 2001

Poland's fledgling Power Exchange (GE) said on Thursday it increased its total volume in the first quarter of 2001 to 511.5 gigawatt hours (GWh) -- or 1.6% of national demand. The result for the first three months of the year nearly equalled that for the entire six-month July-December period in 2000, when turnover came to 526 GWh, said GE representatives. Its average price rose to zł.102 per megawatt hour (MWh) in March from zł.96.6 in the July-December period of 2000, while daily turnover -- at 2,859 MWh in the second half of 2000 -- surged to 7,034 MWh in January, before falling to 4,786 and 5,141 MWh in February and March, respectively. The bourse, whose volumes are limited by long-term power contracts that tie up some 70% of the domestic market, late last year became Poland's first market allowed to quote power outside the government-set price range. (Reuters)