Southern Africa Power Pool Forward Market
Southern Africa’s power sector is moving at pace—marked by real momentum, investment, and confidence. Across the region, we hear the same message from market participants: there is strong appetite for practical innovation that helps energy businesses manage risk, protect financial performance, and grow with certainty.
Green Tiger Markets has built that solution for the Southern African Power Pool. We provide a suite of standardized, proven, and secure financial contracts—supported by a technology platform designed to efficiently connect counterparties and match commercial needs, so participants can manage price and volume risk with greater speed, transparency, and control.
GTM featured contracts
GTM lists contracts to trade Baseload power (24 hours per day) with the following SAPP Day Ahead Market reference prices:
‘Unconstrained’ Monthly Average Market Clearing Price (MCP) (aka the “Grid Price”)
Zambia Nodes Monthly Average Market Clearing Price (aka the "Zambia Price")
These reference prices refer to the published SAPP Baseload price. Shortly after launch, we plan to enable contracts for Peak, Off-Peak, and Standard Prices
Trade a single month, a strip of months, a full calendar year, or a strip of years.
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Calendar Year Grid Price
Calendar Year
12 monthsLiquidity to trade the next calendar year is at its peak during Q4, when our participants are finalizing their financial outlook for next year.
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Half Year Grid Price
July - December
6 monthsParticipants enhance their baseline financial hedges with half year contracts, optimizing portfolio exposure based on unique needs. Trade 6 month strips starting in any month of the year on GTM.
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Quarterly Zambia Price
April - June
3 monthsTrade in quarterly strips, our most popular contract, to optimize your energy portfolio in each season. Our new midday contract hedges against intraday price exposure.
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Month Zambia Price
June
1 monthFully control your exposure to spot prices with single month contracts on GTM. Now you have the flexibility to hedge exactly what you need from month to month.
For Generators
Reduce your exposure to SAPP spot prices
Generators use GTM Contracts to handle short-term excess, or to cover shortfalls in anticipated generation, to reduce the impact of spot market price volatility.
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Lock in the price of power ahead of time for planned outages at your plant.
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If you anticipate excess or shortfall in generation due to cyclical seasonality, sell your surplus and buy your deficit on GTM using our monthly contracts.
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If your company delivers power directly to spot as “a price taker”, find a buyer on GTM and lock in a price to secure your business margins and protect your profits against price shock.
For Distributors
Reduce your exposure to SAPP spot market prices
Distributors use GTM Contracts to lock in the price of spot electricity, and to sell back any contracted surplus, to reduce the impact of spot market price volatility.
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Perhaps your retail portfolio is undersupplied for a period of high utilization. Draw additional power from spot as you need it, and use GTM to lock in the price you will pay ahead of time.
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Suppose your deal team wins a new Customer, but their demand runs beyond your contracted capacity. No problem. Lock-in your wholesale spot price now, by buying a Financial Hedge, and secure the margins on your new deal.
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If your company draws power directly to spot as “a price taker”, find a seller on GTM and lock in a price to secure your business margins and protect your profits against price shock.
For Developers
Accelerate your project development efforts
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If you have already contracted the delivery of power but your project is a few months behind schedule, buy the replacement power you need for those months by using GTM contracts.
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It is costly and time consuming to call around for companies who want to contract your physical power. Instead, use GTM to secure your offtake using financial contracts. Deliver your power directly to spot, hedge the price you will receive on GTM, and break ground that much sooner.
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Your lenders may require certainty in the price you will receive for your power. You can sell some or all of your forward power using a GTM financial hedge and secure your financing more quickly. If you land a PSA later, you can buy your hedge back.
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Got another project with economics that works if you can find a buyer for future years? Post an offer for those years now. You can hold the option to greenlight a project for development until after GTM has secured a buyer for you.
For Bulk Consumers
Secure reliable, fixed price energy
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Instead of buying your power directly from a retail distributor or generator, use the SAPP spot market to procure your power directly from the grid, and use GTM contracts to hedge your spot market price exposure.
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All generators will have outages from time to time. Sourcing your power requirements from the spot market, and hedging your price exposure using GTM contracts, gives you access to the aggregated power from many diverse generators, plus the fail-over and emergency capacity measures that have been contracted into the grid.
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Avoid energy contracts that incorporate variable cost elements, such as the market price of Coal, or the variable price of Spot Electricity. Use GTM contracts to pick a fixed price that secures the profitability of your company and removes variable price risk from your economics.
Market FitA natural opportunity for trade
Diversity is the basis for trading
The Southern Africa Power Pool boasts an eclectic mix of energy generation technologies. The core economics of hydro, coal, natural gas and solar are each unique, with different logistical challenges, exogenous price risks, and seasonal or intraday load shape.
Companies with different price risk provide the basis and the urgency for trade. A hydro generator needs to buy energy during the dry season. A coal generator needs price protection if midday prices drop due to the onset of rooftop solar.
Use GTM to find a counterparty that has the opposite business risk than you do, and secure a win-win contract that reduces operating risk for both parties.
Read the GTM Rulebook
Contact us
Green Tiger Markets agents are available now to discuss your trading strategy.