Past event: Today's U.S. Electric Power Industry, ISO Markets, Power Transactions and Renewable Energy Resources

If you have difficulty understanding the U.S. electric power industry and how power deals are done, you are not alone.

This in-depth program provides a comprehensive and clear explanation of the structure, function, and current status of today's U.S. electric power industry; the many industry topics listed below; and how PPAs and other power transactions are done.

Each part of this complex industry will be explained piece-by-piece, and then the pieces will be integrated so that you will leave the seminar with an understanding of "how it all fits together."

What You Will Learn

• The structure and function of the electric service system, its terminology and units, and the properties of electricity.
• How the North American power grid is structured, how it operates and what the different types of electric generation are.
• How control areas, balancing authorities, spinning reserves, AGC and security constrained environmental economic dispatch work.
• Who the key players in the industry are, and why the industry is so difficult to restructure.
• How cost-of-service utility ratemaking and open access deregulated markets work, and why open access retail electricity markets are finally developing in states that permit them.
• What ISOs, RTOs, ITCs and merchant transmission companies are, and how they operate.
• What the smart grid, demand side management (“DSM”), distributed energy resources (“DER”) and demand response (“DR”) are, and how these forms of “virtual generation” and renewable energy resources are disrupting the U.S. power industry.
• The opportunities and challenges associated with wind, solar and other renewables.
• How ISO Day-Ahead energy auction markets operate in PJM, New York, Texas, California, MISO and other ISO areas;
• What locational marginal pricing (LMP) is and why it is important; how Day-Ahead and Real Time LMP is applied in the ISO markets, and why FTRs, TCCs, CRRs, TCRs , virtual bids (“Incs & Decs”) and convergence bidding are important to understand.
• What capacity markets and resource adequacy are, and how this important issue relates to demand response, DER and demand side management and affects the integration of wind, solar and other renewables into the existing power grid.
• An overview of Utility scale solar, rooftop solar, and net metering, and wind and other renewable energy resources.
• What the Western Grid "Energy Imbalance Market" is, and why it is important to understand Community Choice Aggregators, the California "Duck Curve" and "FRAC-MOO."

You Will Also Learn

• The terminology, concepts and mechanics of PPAs and physical, financial & heat rate power transactions.
• How to transport physical power using OASIS and NERC tags, and how and why companies often move physical power financially causing it to ‘jump’ between regions.
• The difference between physical, scheduled, and contract path power flows.
• What "sellers choice" is, and how transaction "daisy chains" form at virtual trading hubs.
• How and why physical power transactions are often “booked-out” and settled in cash, and why bilateral transactions in ISO markets are primarily financial.
• How to execute wholesale and retail power marketing transactions both within and outside of an ISO area- including commonly used contract language and NERC tags; how to manage LMP, basis, delivery, volumetric, intermittency and operational risks; and why NITS, TAC, UCAP, resource adequacy and ancillary service charges need to be included.
• How ICE & CME cash settled futures contacts, commodity swaps and FTRs/CRRs/TCCs can be used to hedge electricity price, basis and LMP spread risk.
• The difference between operating, economic, market and negotiated heat rates, and what the terms spark spread, dark spread and bark spread mean.
• What "tolling deals" are, and how the powerful technique of heat-rate-linked power transactions can be used.
• How a natural gas-fired generating plant is a call option on the spark spread, what "optionality" means, and a simple rule to use to optimize the economics of a natural gas or coal-fired merchant generating plant.

Who Should Attend this Seminar

Among those who will benefit from this seminar include energy and electric power executives; attorneys; government regulators; traders & trading support staff; marketing, sales, purchasing & risk management personnel; accountants & auditors; plant operators; engineers; and corporate planners.

Types of companies that typically attend this program include energy producers and marketers; utilities; banks & financial houses; industrial companies; accounting, consulting & law firms; municipal utilities; government regulators and electric generators.

Prerequisites and Advance Preparation
This fundamental level group live seminar has no prerequisites. No advance preparation is required before the seminar.

Program Level & Delivery Method
Basic level. This fundamental course begins with basic material and then proceeds to the intermediate level. Delivery method is "Group-Live."