Energi Danmark and Optimax fined over the June 2019 imbalances
The Bundesnetzagentur fined Energi Danmark EUR 200,000 and Optimax Energy EUR 175,000 for intraday sell orders on EPEX SPOT for power that, it found, was not available, placed on three days of severe imbalance in June 2019. Optimax objected and its fine did not become final.
On this page
The decision
- Authority
- Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA), Germany
- Published
- 5 October 2021
- Participants
- Energi Danmark A/S; Optimax Energy GmbH
- Commodity
- Electricity
- Market
- German continuous intraday market on EPEX SPOT
- Conduct period
- Three days in June 2019
- REMIT
- Article 5 (Market manipulation)
- Type of conduct
- Selling unavailable energy
- Penalty
- EUR 200,000 (Energi Danmark) and EUR 175,000 (Optimax Energy)
- Status
- Energi Danmark final; Optimax annulled (ACER register, 2026-10-14)
What the Bundesnetzagentur found
The Bundesnetzagentur found that sell orders for German intraday power on EPEX SPOT gave a misleading signal about supply, because the power offered or sold was not available and there was no intention to procure or generate it. The orders were placed at the end of the trading period, shortly before delivery, and either stayed open until close or were executed. The agency cites, among other things, the considerable shortfalls in the companies' balancing groups at the time as showing this.
It added that the exchange price was unusually high and predictably above the expected price of balancing energy. In its words, the companies had an economic incentive to sell expensive power and pay for cheaper balancing energy for the power not delivered. The agency found manipulative trading in eight situations for Energi Danmark A/S and seven for Optimax Energy GmbH. Vice-president Peter Franke said dangerous shortfalls in balancing groups must not pay.
How it came to light
On three days in June 2019 the German TSOs had to use balancing energy fully for long periods and take further measures to keep the system stable. ACER, in its market monitoring under Article 7(1) of REMIT, had seen conspicuously high German intraday prices in some of the periods and high sales volumes by several participants, including these two, that appeared to produce unusually large short positions. It reported to the Bundesnetzagentur a suspicion that their trading had sent misleading signals about the power actually available.
The agency analysed more than one hundred million trading and balancing group records. On 7 September 2020 it opened fine proceedings against three market participants, saying that 21 trading situations showed indications of misleading offers. Those proceedings ran independently of five supervisory proceedings, concluded in April 2020, which found that the balance responsible parties had not met their duty to balance their groups; the fine proceedings asked whether the extreme situation had been exploited on the trading side.
The outcome
The Bundesnetzagentur announced the fines on 5 October 2021 and said they were not final; the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf decides on any objection. Its notice now states that the fine against Optimax Energy did not become final after Optimax objected to the fine notice. The announcement says nothing about the third company in the proceedings. The ACER register lists Energi Danmark's fine as final and Optimax's as annulled, as of 14 October 2026.
This account rests on the Bundesnetzagentur's public releases. The underlying fine notices and any court decisions were not located for this review; the later statuses above are the dated ACER register record, not findings in the original release.
For a surveillance function
The agency's reasoning ties an offer to the seller's own position: it read large balancing group shortfalls and the gap between the exchange price and the expected balancing price as evidence that the offered power did not exist. A firm's surveillance of its own late intraday sell orders therefore needs to compare them with the firm's physical and balancing position at the same time.
Sources
- Bundesnetzagentur, Bußgelder wegen Manipulationen im Energiegroßhandel, 5 October 2021 (Press release, in German)
- Bundesnetzagentur, Marktmanipulationen am Energiegroßhandelsmarkt im Zusammenhang mit Bilanzungleichgewichten im Juni 2019, 7 September 2020 (Press release, in German)
- ACER, overview of REMIT sanction decisions (ACER register)
Sources read on 27 October 2026. This page restates what the authority published and adds no finding of its own. A decision under appeal is not final, and its status may have changed since: check the source before relying on it.