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Retail Markets

A Better Measure for Profitability

A new way to measure what matters most: how close a unit comes to meeting its total potential profit.

Approximately 65 percent of capacity additions in the last few years have been gas-fired, combined-cycle units. Recent market conditions have been hard on these new resources, which have suffered from significantly low capacity factors. A better metric would measure a unit's ability to capture peak prices while minimizing shoulder period and off-peak losses. Furthermore, it would measure the extent to which a unit dispatches according to favorable market conditions.
Byline: 

Tom Ottem and Michael McNair

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It's Back

Energy trading returns, healthier and wiser.

As the overall market and, in particular, credit ratings begin to improve, will utilities and other energy players jump back into the energy trading market? Only if the return of trading adds real value to a company.
Byline: 

Gary L. Hunt and Grant Thain

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Northwest Passage: BPA's Changing Role

The treacherous journey toward a more efficient and transparent Northwest power market may be nearing its conclusion.

The treacherous journey toward a more efficient and transparent Northwest power market may be nearing its conclusion, as increased funding, more generating capacity, and a burgeoning RTO paint a brighter picture for Bonneville Power Administration.
Byline: 

Michael T. Burr

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North American CIS Market In Transformation

Deregulation is the stimulus for a larger CIS footprint.

To achieve operational efficacy after harvesting the low-hanging fruit of cost reduction in customer care and billing, CIS products will need to integrate the complex business processes that cross the borders of several enterprise applications.
Byline: 

Zarko Sumic

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Perspective: MISO, Markets, and Common Sense

Wisconsinites don't fear 'Day 2.' But let's get the grid rights right.

The cost of rushing into poorly designed LMP-based energy markets may far exceed any purported cost increases attributable to any future delayed start-up date for certain portions of the MISO region.
Byline: 

Robert M. Garvin

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The Utility Sector: A Wall Street Takeover?

Financial players bring credit depth to energy markets, but will they play by the rules?

The center of gravity for energy marketing and trading is moving from Houston to Wall Street. Who’s in, who’s out, and who’s testing the waters?
Byline: 

Michael T. Burr

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Natural Gas and California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard

A successful initiative should reduce state dependence on volatile supplies.

California will save approximately $1 billion in annual natural gas expenditures by 2015 as a result of the RPS. Our modeling efforts indicate that market clearing power prices in California are likely to remain relatively unchanged when comparing the "No RPS" to the "Full RPS" case.
Byline: 

Brandon Owens and Jack Ihle

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Betting on Retail Risk Management: Flat Prices for Peak Hedging

Why a risk-hedging product for small customers isn't the gamble you may think.

Some innovators in the electric industry recently began offering financial hedging products that absorb risk from large customers. Why not offer this kind of protection to customers with small electric loads? Protecting customers from price risk is the essence of flat pricing, and it is where a company can step in and capitalize.

Byline: 

Michael O’Sheasy and Mike Becker

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Energy Trading & Marketing: The Evolution of the Deal

Energy traders and risk managers reengineered their business dealings to manage against unexpected political and financial risks posed by California and Enron in 2001.

The rules of energy market survival changed forever in 2001. California and Enron were both humbled by gyrating prices and blackouts in the Golden State, and financial misadventure dethroned the once-crowned king of energy trading. These twin events sent shockwaves through the very foundation of the energy trading and risk management establishment.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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