LONDON (Reuters) - The European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET) has urged power exchanges Nord Pool and EPEX SPOT to keep a single British day-ahead power price if there is a no-deal Brexit.
Britain is due to leave the European Union on Friday unless it gets a further extension. Without a deal, it would no longer be coupled to European power markets and the UK market would be split between the EPEX SPOT and Nord Pool hubs.
It would mean there were two day-ahead power prices for Britain for the same delivery period.
"Although there is no legal requirement obliging power exchanges to maintain a single UK price, we call on EPEX SPOT and Nord Pool to find practical arrangements to re-establish a single price for the UK bidding zone," EFET said in a statement.
"Maintaining a single reference price is crucial for ensuring the efficient functioning of the wholesale market in power inside Britain, in particular with regard to price discovery and efficient hedging," it added.
EPEX SPOT said it has been discussing arrangements for maintaining a single UK power price after Brexit with parties in Britain and Europe over the past few weeks.
"So far, unfortunately, we have not obtained the necessary alignment of all concerned parties on a pragmatic solution, but we will continue to push for it," it added.
Nord Pool said it has been in discussions with the British government and energy market regulator for many months about the issue, adding it had yet to be satisfactorily addressed.
A spokeswoman for the company said talks with UK stakeholders were continuing and its top priority was to ensure its members could continue to trade with confidence on its platform in the event of a hard Brexit.
British Prime Minister Theresa May will meet German leader Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday to argue for a Brexit delay as her ministers continue to hold crisis talks with the opposition Labour Party to try to break the deadlock in London.
As it stands, Britain will leave the EU at 2200 GMT on Friday.
(Reporting by Nina Chestney and Lefteris Karagiannopoulos; editing by Mike Harrison and Kirsten Donovan)
