Power-System Market Design & Analysis

Our work targets design of markets for energy, capacity, and ancillary services; potential impacts of the addition and attrition of generating assets and transmission facilities; generating-asset operational performance; alignment of retail and wholesale market designs; design of emissions-allowance markets; codes of conduct and governance processes; and social, consumer, and producer impacts of proposed market rule changes.

We have worked directly with regional transmission organizations (RTOs), independent system operators (ISOs), and regulatory clients on strategic planning and market design in various engagements. We have provided analyses of wholesale sales of electricity at market-based rates based on indicative screens and price tests for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and testified on behalf of major electricity suppliers, individual merchant generators, and investment funds that own electric generation capacity.

Representative market design and analysis engagements include:

  • Strategic advice to RTO boards of directors
  • Market design, and analysis of market design effectiveness and impacts
  • Assessment of generating-asset performance
  • Assessment of implications of emerging environmental and economic market factors on generating-asset retirements
  • Modeling of administrative price factors used in market structures
  • Modeling of credit lines needed as a counterparty in the financial transmission rights (FTR) market
  • Review of the implications of proposed state policies for market performance and outcomes
  • Development of an approach for an innovative energy-auction proposal to mitigate concerns about alleged wholesale market power
  • Cost/benefit analyses of various regions’ competitive wholesale markets
  • Assessment of the competitive implications of auction designs, affiliate transactions, and alternative industry and corporate structures
  • Evaluation of retail and wholesale competitive market performance in various regions
  • Review of market monitoring and mitigation policies and practices of select RTOs
  • Comparative performance evaluation of single-clearing price versus pay-as-bid competitive market designs
  • Assessment of the adequacy of energy and capacity markets to value attributes of electric resources
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