Energy

Energy Market Design

Designing and implementing efficient electricity markets is key to the success of restructuring efforts. If the rules governing such things as system operations, bidding, and contracting are not efficient and compatible, competition may be inhibited. Various institutional models have been proposed and implemented. As they are implemented, new problems and issues are being confronted, some of which have served to mitigate potential benefits sought through restructuring. As new power markets and power pools develop, the challenge to the industry is to determine how to best shape future marketplaces. A number of different issues must be considered, including:

• Independence and governance of system operations;
• Power system reliability and operations standards;
• Energy bidding, ancillary services price determination and settlement procedures;
• Transmission system access, congestion management, pricing and expansion;
• Forward market development and contracting; and
• Metering, billing and market information requirements.

NERA has an enormous amount of experience assisting utilities, independent power producers, and government entities with market design and implementation issues. We have been involved with the development of power pools and trading systems, in fact, virtually all of the power pools and independent system operators (or ISOs) throughout the world. We have also consulted on bilateral transactions and related issues and written and testified on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Standard Market Design proposal.