Valuation Hedging And Speculation In Competitive Electricity Markets

The challenges currently facing particIpants m competitive electricity markets are unique and staggering: unprecedented price volatility, a crippling lack of historical market data on which to test new modeling approaches, and a continuously changing regulatory structure. Meeting these challenges will require the knowledge and experience of both the engineering and finance communities. Yet the two communities continue to largely ignore each other. The finance community believes that engineering models are too detailed and complex to be practically applicable in the fast changing market environment. Engineers counter that the finance models are merely statistical regressions, lacking the necessary structure to capture the true dynamic properties of complex power systems. While both views have merit, neither group has by themselves been able to produce effective tools for meeting industry challenges. The goal of this book is to convey the fundamental differences between electricity and other traded commodities, and the impact these differences have on valuation, hedging and operational decisions made by market participants. The optimization problems associated with these decisions are formulated in the context of the market realities of today's power industry, including a lack of liquidity on forward and options markets, limited availability of historical data, and constantly changing regulatory structures.

Electricity markets are being deregulated or face new regulatory frameworks. In such changing markets, new pricing strategies will need to consider such factors as cost, value of service and pricing by objective. Pricing in Competitive Electricity Markets introduces a new family of pricing concepts, methodologies, models, tools and databases focused on market-based pricing. This book reviews important theoretical pricing issues as well as practical pricing applications for changing electricity markets.

The authors are prominent economists, operation researchers, and engineers who have been instrumental in the development of the conceptual framework for electric power restructuring both in the United States and in other countries. Rather than espousing a particular market design for the industry's future, each author focuses on an important issue or set of issues and tries to frame the questions for designing electricity markets using an international perspective. The book focuses on the economic and technical questions important in understanding the industry's long-term development rather than providing immediate answers for the current political debates on industry competition.

Praise for Energy and Power Risk Management "Energy and Power Risk Management identifies and addresses the keyissues in the development of the turbulent energy industry and thechallenges it poses to market players. An insightful andfar-reaching book written by two renowned professionals." -Helyette Geman, Professor of Finance University Paris Dauphine and ESSEC "The most up-to-date and comprehensive book on managing energyprice risk in the natural gas and power markets. An absoluteimperative for energy traders and energy risk managementprofessionals." -Vincent Kaminski, Managing Director Citadel Investment Group LLC "Eydeland and Wolyniec's work does an excellent job of outliningthe methods needed to measure and manage risk in the volatileenergy market." -Gerald G. Fleming, Vice President, Head of East Power Trading, TXUEnergy Trading "This book combines academic rigor with real-world practicality. Itis a must-read for anyone in energy risk management or assetvaluation." -Ron Erd, Senior Vice President American Electric Power

Addressing the important issues of worldwide energy price risk management, this work assembles the leading industry figures to explain general theories and practices for hedging risk, and specific methods to effectively manage risk in markets such as coal, natural gas, electricity, and hydropower.

Critique of the US Electricity Industry. Analysis of derailed industry deregulation initiatives. Sketches a new, competitively structured Energy Policy Template.