(Bloomberg) -- Traders are complaining about unfair losses made in the German power market because of an IT glitch this week. 

A technical issue which caused Germany’s day-ahead power price to rise to almost seven times it’s normal levels on Tuesday has shaken trust in the market, according to traders posting on LinkedIn. The unexpectedly high price had an impact on industry too with Feralpi Stahlhandel GmbH, a large steel manufacturer, temporarily shutting down it’s plant near Dresden to try to limit losses, according to newspaper Handelsblatt.

“Yes, I was short in Germany, I was theoretically correct with my position, but in practice, the financial impact is enormous,” Jesper Thiesen, a power trader at SEF A/S said in a post on LinkedIn.

Despite the “very challenging” events, backup procedures were “successfully executed,” Epex Spot SE said in a statement. The company’s oversight body, the Market Coupling Steering Committee, has started an in-depth investigation which should be published within a month, according to the exchange.

Traders have expressed annoyance at how little explanation Epex Spot has given the market.

“I am trading continental short term power for more than 15 years and never have I experienced such a poor handling of a critical situation,” said Dominik Meier, senior power trader at BKW Energy Ltd said in a post. 

Day-ahead power markets in central-western Europe have been linked for almost a decade. This means an algorithm matches supply and demand across borders, sending electricity to where prices are highest and enabling maximum use across the region of low-cost wind or solar energy. It was this process that was affected by the glitch.

The IT issue on Epex Spot, Europe’s biggest exchange for short-term power trading, caused the German auction price to jump to the highest since August 2022 on Tuesday while prices in France dropped, causing the biggest spread between the regions on record. 

--With assistance from Petra Sorge.

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