Power market reliability explained: what traders mean by system stress
Power market reliability is a term frequently used on trading floors, but it’s rarely clearly defined. While everyone recognises its importance, it can have different meanings depending on whether you are approaching it from an operational, regulatory, or trading perspective. For traders and portfolio managers, reliability is not just an abstract engineering idea; it is a market condition that significantly influences price patterns, volatility, and risk.
This article explains what traders mean by system stress, why it has become more frequent, how it shows up in prices and spreads, and which indicators matter most when managing reliability risk.
