EnDimensions was proud to sponsor the 2023 Association of Power Exchanges (APEx) convention October 2023, in Istanbul, Turkey. APEx is an international group of energy market operators that is conceived and operated as a means for market operators to share insights and methods for both new and evolving energy markets across the globe. As always, it is a much-appreciated opportunity for EnDimensions staff to meet and “talk shop” with a diverse group of staff and executives who are instrumental in advancing the social benefits of energy markets from Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.
Dr. Jeff Chapman was pleased to share the expertise of EnDimensions in the area of financial management and financial settlements with the group, focusing on expanding the utilization of renewable energy sources worldwide. In every area in the world, the expanding use of renewable energy sources presents operational and market challenges that must be addressed to provide clean, economical and reliable energy. Markets must create on-ramps to market participation for innovative technologies, providing incentives to increase beneficial sources of green energy and fostering innovation.
But fostering renewable energy development presents a number of challenges to market operators, invariably increasing the data volume and complexity of the transactional side of the market. A few of the major roadblocks, particularly in developing markets, are as follows:
Shorter intervals for pricing and settlement drive a large increase the amount of data processing required. For example, transitioning from a single daily energy price to an hourly price increases the data volume by a factor of at least 24. Go to 5-minute intervals and that factor increase to 288 or more
Increased operational requirements for flexible resources to provide energy for filling in the peaks and valleys of renewable energy production require new products and services, such as flexible ramping and operating reserves, multiplying the complexity of settlement calculations
Increasing regulatory and auditability requirements make it mandatory to have a robust, stable and centralized system to allow for transparency in all financial transactions and to provide a platform for reporting to government oversight agencies
Budget Constraints make it difficult to place expensive IT infrastructure in service before it is needed, creating a critical need for systems that can start small but scale up cleanly and conveniently to meet increasing demands
It is critical for evolving markets to keep the settlement side of the picture in sight, and act proactively to put robust financial systems and supporting IT platforms in place to avoid being overwhelmed by the changes that new market policies require.