Medellin, Colombia, October 12, 2016
EnDimensions participated as an active sponsor of the annual convention of the Association of Power Exchanges (APEx), an international organization of energy market operators from around the world. Hosted by the Colombian market operator XM Compañía de Expertos en Mercados S.A. E.S.P, the 2016 APEx Conference held in Medellin, Colombia provided an opportunity for senior representatives from power markets around the world to share experiences, discuss common issues and compare notes.
PJM CEO Andy Ott’s keynote address introduced a number of issues including integration of distributed and renewable energy resources and the impact of distribution-level microgrids that became common threads of discussion among many presenters and attendees. These issues create challenges as ISOs and RTOs look to develop new market mechanisms to reduce carbon dioxide, foster reliability and encourage investment while managing an exponential increase in market complexity and data volume. More products, more market participants and tight real-time market intervals are inexorably increasing the amount of data that must be processed to keep the market running. These factors have the potential to create a perfect storm that stresses operational and back office systems to their limits.
Markets outside of Europe and North America are confronted with many of the same issues, as a number of existing and prospective energy markets see double-digit near-term growth in energy demand. Expanding economies and growing per-capita power utilization fuel the need and determination to innovate in response to the local and global demands of the 21st century. Many common themes apply but each market is also unique in some aspects.
Ivanova Ancheta, Director of Guatemala’s National Commission of Energy, spoke of the long, successful effort to meld six Central American power systems together to forge an international energy market. Sixteen years after signing a regional treaty framework, the Regional Energy Market began full operations in 2013. Cecilia Maya, CFO of Colombia’s XM, provided an overview of XM’s progress in managing credit risk to avoid cascading financial failures during El Nino events, when sustained drought reduces hydroelectric output and can cause elevated power prices over long periods of time. During such events, the failure of one organization to pay its obligations can cause cascading failure as unpaid creditors also founder, resulting in a widespread crisis. The Colombian market has built-in mechanisms to limit the financial risk of each participant and a funding mechanism to mitigate the impact of high energy prices.
Both internationally and in the U.S., ISOs and RTOs are looking ahead to create vibrant markets that encourage investment in environmentally friendly technologies, enhance reliability and reduce emissions by leveraging distributed generation, demand response and microgrids. In so doing they look to also provide cost reduction and long term value to consumers. As part of that effort, ISOs and RTOs must evaluate whether their existing software and hardware infrastructure will be able to support growing and changing markets over the next five to ten years. EnDimensions LLC is working hand-in-hand with market operators to support this transition. With innovative products geared specifically for market operators, EnDimensions provides the next generation of large scale back-office management systems for post-processing, settlements, billing, reporting and analytics to reduce costs and keep our power markets humming for years to come.
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