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

Day 1

• The properties and terminology of electricity - current, power, var, voltage, etc.
• An overview of the electric service system, and how it works.
• The structure and function of the North American power grid.
• How control areas & balancing authorities operate, what spinning reserves are, and how the lights are kept on.
• The pros and cons of different sources of electric generation ( coal, natural gas, nuclear, renewables ), and how they work.
• How cost-of-service ratemaking and retail open access markets work
• Why open access retail electricity markets are finally developing in states that permit them.
• Who the various industry participants are and their roles.
• Why restructuring today's power markets is such a complicated task.
• The difference between ISOs, RTOs, ITCs and merchant transmission companies.
• Why it is so difficult to build new high voltage power lines.
• How ISO Day-Ahead energy 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 applied and managed in the ISO markets.
• Virtual bids (“Incs & Decs”) and convergence bidding and what their purpose is.
• Financial transmission rights (“FTRs”), congestion revenue rights (“CRRs”), TCCs, TCRs and TRs.
• Forward capacity markets, resource adequacy and generation reserve margins.

Day 2

• Wind, utility scale solar, rooftop solar, community solar, and the net metering debate.
• The opportunities, challenges and risks associated with wind, solar and other renewables.
• The smart grid, demand side management (“DSM”), distributed energy resources (“DER”) and demand response (“DR”), and why these assets are forms of “virtual” electric generation..
• How wind, solar, DER, DSM, demand response and conservation are disrupting the U.S. power industry
• The Western Grid "Energy Imbalance Market," The California "Duck Curve" and California’s “FRAC-MOO.”
• The fundamentals of bilateral power transactions—units, concepts and terminology.
• Common contract language used for bilateral power transactions.
• Point-to-Point Firm, Network Firm, and Non-Firm transmission service, and how to buy transmission contracts on OASIS.
• How to transport physical power using purchased transmission service and the purpose of NERC tags.
• What "seller’s choice” and “buyer’s choice” are, and how forward "daisy chains" form at virtual trading hubs.
• The difference between physical, scheduled and contract path power flows, and why power transactions have nothing to do with the flow of electrons.
• How trading floors and futures exchanges help commercial players manage risk.
• How and why physical power transactions are often “booked-out” and settled in cash.
• How any why companies often move physical power financially causing it to ‘jump’ between regions.
• An introduction to electricity cash settled futures, swaps, and CFDs, and how these products relate to ISO administered financial transmission rights (FTRs), congestion revenue rights (CRRs) and TCCs.
• Detailed examples of how to execute wholesale and retail power marketing transactions both within and outside of an ISO area-- including commonly used contract language & NERC tags; how to manage price, LMP, basis, delivery, volumetric, intermittency and operational risks; and the importance of including NITS, TAC, UCAP, resource adequacy and ancillary service charges.
• 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