AggregateEU: A European Success Story in Four Cycles
One year, four tendering rounds, and 42 billion cubic meters of gas offers. A retrospective of one year of AggregateEU for the EU Energy Platform.
Leipzig, 20.12.2023 - PRISMA European Capacity GmbH is thrilled to celebrate the one year anniversary of the AggregateEU Service developed for the EU Energy Platform. Over the year, 42.13 billion cubic meters of gas offers from reliable suppliers were matched to the demand aggregated through AggregateEU.
Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič highlights the importance of the achievement. "In 2023, the EU Energy Platform showed its true potential to effectively contribute to greater European energy security by using the EU’s market weight."
The EU Energy Platform was established to enhance the diversification of EU gas supplies following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the collective decision to end dependence on Russian fossil fuel imports. One of the strategies to achieve these goals was to aggregate European gas demand and facilitate the joint purchase process, whereby the aggregated demand is matched with the most competitive supply offers on the global market.
This mechanism would later be named AggregateEU. The task of assisting the European Commission in building and operating this mechanism was entrusted to PRISMA at the beginning of 2023. Götz Lincke, PRISMA’s Managing Director, recalls this responsibility with pride. "In these turbulent times, this project came with great responsibility. So, we were honored to accept it and to make our contribution to the security of Europe's future energy supply."
The Launch of AggregateEU
In April 2023, the EU Energy Platform launched the first tendering round through AggregateEU. "It was exciting," remembers Paolo Maffeis, Executive Manager at PRISMA and one of the main business experts behind AggregateEU. "Of course, we knew that our engineers could pull it off. We had, however, only a few months to develop the mechanism. That was a tight deadline. And at the same time, we wanted to ensure that everything ran smoothly."
When both objectives were achieved with astounding results, crunch time gave way to celebration. By leveraging its collective economic weight, the EU managed to attract bids from a total of 25 supplying companies, which amounted to more than 13.4 billion cubic meters of gas – surpassing the 11.6 billion cubic meters of joint demand that EU companies submitted through PRISMA's AggregateEU mechanism.
AggregateEU matched the international suppliers with the European customers, amounting to an overall volume of 10.9 billion cubic meters. This covers 8.7 billion cubic meters of gas via pipelines and 2.2 billion cubic meters of LNG. A remarkable success for such a new platform and mechanism.
Being the Matchmaker
Three more rounds followed throughout the year, and collectively, AggregateEU succeeded in aggregating more than 54 billion cubic meters of demand, attracting more than 61 billion cubic meters of supply and matching 42 billion cubic meters of gas demand with offers. The EU Energy Platform and AggregateEU have demonstrated the EU’s ability to use its collective weight to secure reliable gas supplies from international partners and make our energy supply more diverse.
Given the current uncertainty and potential threats to the European energy market, the Council of the European Union has recently agreed on the Commission’s proposal for the prolongation of the energy emergency measures for additional 12 months. This will allow the continuation of AggregateEU for an additional year.
„We at PRISMA appreciate their trust and we are proud to contribute even more to the energy security of Europe through our work,” said Götz Lincke, PRISMA’s Managing Director.
About PRISMA
PRISMA European Capacity Platform GmbH is a leading platform for gas movement across Europe, seamlessly connecting over 3,000 players. PRISMA's cloud-based software aims to establish a fair, transparent, and integrated market for the benefit of the economy and society.
About AggregateEU
AggregateEU is the innovative solution developed for the EU Energy Platform, facilitating demand aggregation and collaborative gas tendering within the European Union. The platform enhances transparency, fosters cooperation, and contributes to the EU's energy security goals.
