Public Power - January/February 2008 - (Page 29) able about the location of the masked generating plants. Likewise, the Synapse researchers noted, “data regarding the actual costs underlying the bids are unavailable, although that information is supplied to PJM by generators. No information is available regarding the bilateral transactions that comprise about a third of the wholesale energy transactions in PJM.” Such data, if available, could mitigate opportunities to exercise market power, the Synapse researchers said. (The full text of the Synapse report is posted in the EMRI section of the APPA Web site, APPAnet.org.) U.S. markets should also post information about the physical operating characteristics of generating plants, Dunn said. Whether a plant is out for maintenance and each plant’s physical operating characteristics (e.g., minimum run/down times and ramp rates) are all important information for power purchasers, he said. For many plants, these operating characteristics will be fairly static and information would need to be disclosed only when something changes. The specific operating characteristics of intermediate and peaking plants are critical, since those are the plants that will normally determine the market-clearing prices, he said. Market information should also include timely disclosure of transmission system conditions, Dunn said. Some transmission information is available in U.S. markets today, but the amount and timeliness of the data is not consistent among RTOs and, in many cases, the information is available only to registered users. “Due to security concerns, the reluctance to make such information easily available to the general public is understandable,” Dunn said. “However, all registered market participants with secure access to the market systems should have easy, timely and secure access to all the same information on transmission system conditions.” Information on transmission outages is not disclosed in the British markets, he noted. But transmission systems in England and Wales are designed to a double contingency standard so they can withstand two outages with no market www.APPAnet.org interruption. With this level of reliability, British market operators see no need to post information on planned outages. “They seem to be concerned that disclosure of transmission outages could allow certain market participants to exploit any constraints that do occur,” he said. Market operators in the United States should post information in a consistent for releasing data, although customers (represented by Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co. and Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative) would prefer releasing unmasked data a day or week after market activity. As with current practice, data released months later that does not identify specific resources and loads does not really help Market information should also include timely disclosure of transmission system conditions, and easily accessible manner, Dunn said. His examination of market data in the New York, PJM, New England, Midwest and California markets revealed that each RTO has its own way of posting information. “The path to such information is different,” he said. “This makes it very inefficient for market participants that participate in more than one market and makes it difficult for analysts to make comparisons across markets.” Dunn, who is president of Sunset Point, LLC, a utility consulting firm, finds the reluctance of market participants to post data puzzling. “The most frequently discussed concern associated with data release in electricity markets is whether the rapid release of data is more likely to facilitate competition or collusion,” he said. “Market participants seem to be taking positions that are counterintuitive. Those who support continued confidentiality or delayed and masked release of data seem primarily to be generation resource owners, who could be expected to benefit from data release if it would truly facilitate collusion.” Load-serving entities, which would be harmed by collusion, support faster release of market information, he said. He noted that generation owners in New England have opposed a shortening of the timing of masked data reporting— from six months to three or four months. Generation owners in ISO New England say they support transparency in markets in theory but not when it comes to their activities, Dunn said. Regulators and even customers supported the shorter timeline with monitoring the behavior of market participants or the performance of RTOs and their market monitors. Generators in U.S. markets claim they will suffer competitive harm if bid and offer data are made public. “Could it be that resource owners can already obtain or infer all the information they need to maximize their profits?” Dunn said. He quoted researchers at Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center who said, “a generator who interacts often with the same group of other generators in a market setting can quickly learn the strategies of the other bidders,” giving generators an unfair information advantage. Dunn said he visited the electricity market trading floor of a market participant in an international market that releases unmasked data the day after operations. He was impressed by the amount of data available to traders. “One could watch the market actively responding in real-time to price changes,” he said. “In the United States, only the large, active generation players have access to a similar amount of information.” Immediate release of unmasked market data would not only give load-serving entities greater confidence in RTO markets, it would also give other generating resource owners “the confidence necessary to invest in the market,” Dunn said. Dunn’s report, Data Required for Market Oversight, is posted in the EMRI section on APPAnet.org. The report includes links to online sources of market information in U.S., British and Australian electricity markets.. ❚ JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2008 29 http://www.APPAnet.org http://www.APPAnet.org http://www.APPAnet.org
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