Life in a Nodal Texas Live Audio Conference on CD

ERCOT has about a 5% chance of meeting the January 2009 deadline for nodal markets, Raymond Giuliani predicted. He's ERCOT chief of market operations. He was addressing a Restructuring Today's June 9, 2006 live audio conference, now available on CD.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) May 11, 2006 -- ERCOT has about a 5% chance of meeting the January 2009 deadline for nodal markets, Raymond Giuliani predicted. He's ERCOT chief of market operations. He was addressing a Restructuring Today's June 9, 2006 live audio conference, now available on CD.

But the long process is worth it, added Marianne Carroll, a partner at Austin's Brown McCarroll who speaks for IPPs. Customers would save $1 billion annually from lower redispatch costs stemming from nodal markets' centralized dispatch, she observed.

Nodal markets will eliminate system-wide subsidies to pay for local congestion, Carroll added. What do marketers and customers need to do to get ready for nodal markets?

Giuliani urged retailers to start talking now with their bilateral counterparties to figure out where the $1 billion in savings is going to come from. ERCOT's spot market only makes up 3-5% of the deals, he reminded. Thus most of the benefits are going to be available in the bilateral market.

Customers don't really need to do anything, Carroll added. Retailers, she suggested, may even find it easier to manage resources because they'll see fewer unexpected costs from congestion.

Most of the nodal protocols impact generators and grid owners to prevent gaming, explained former FERC Chairman Pat Wood who told about his conversion from zonal to nodal thinking before he came to FERC. He thinks customers could get better price signals if load could be its own node. That would encourage more demand response, he observed.

PUC Commissioner Julie Caruthers Parsley sees big value in demand response too and noted the PUC is to open a rulemaking on that. She thinks ERCOT's education and training efforts will make sure marketers are well prepared for the nodal transition. Generators’ revenues actually may fall with nodal markets, Carroll predicted.

So why would IPPs support nodal then? Nodal markets will let the most efficient generators get higher revenues by dispatching them more often, she explained. It's going to encourage inefficient, 50-year-old natural gas-fired peakers to retire, she added. Wood and Giuliani told how grid rights are to change under nodal markets.

To hear the full discussion unabridged, visit http://www.restructuringtoday.com/catalog/audiocds/30005621-1.html or call 800-486-8201 (202-298-8201) to learn more and to order the 90-minute audio CD recording for just $150 -- shipping and handling is free -- and it's shipped by UPS Ground (domestic) or USPS Priority (international) within one business day.

Testimonials:

"Very concise and focused point-by-point analysis of nodal market benefits."

-- Edward Doll, Energy Analyst, Fluent Energy

"Speakers' initial comments were a good overview and they had the background to answer live questions very informatively."

-- Elizabeth Drews, Attorney, Brown McCarroll

"Everyone presented a clear and understandable stand on how they feel about a Nodal Texas."

-- Greg Martin, Stream Energy

Hear from this panel of industry leaders:

* Pat Wood made a lot happen in Austin as chairman of the PUC before a distinguished stretch as chairman of FERC -- opening up markets in both places.

* Raymond Giuliani, who started with KPMG Peat Marwick in Atlanta is now vice president and chief of market operations at ERCOT.

* Marianne Carroll is a partner at Brown McCarroll in Austin and speaks for independent generators.

* Julie Caruthers Parsley serves as a PUC commissioner now. She's been a member of the Texas commission since November 2002 but her term now expires in September 2011.

Hear the panel face questions like these:

* When will Texas consumers begin to benefit from the nodal way?

* Why focus on the nodal method now?

* How will Texas consumers benefit from the change?

* Who will be the winners and losers in the ERCOT market redesign?

* How will municipals and cooperatives be impacted?

* Is there anything end-users can and should be doing to prepare for the implementation of LMP?

* What new financial tools will be available to hedge against congestion costs?

* What transmission projects will be completed before the implementation of nodal and how will they affect congestion maps?

* What rules will prevent generators in congested areas from exerting market power?

* Will the current uncertainty about the transition to nodal impact state and regional economic development? If so, how?

* Are we “on time and under budget” or “delayed with cost overruns?”

* Congestion costs have declined in ERCOT despite lower capacity reserve margins. TXU has announced plans to build $10 billion in new coal generation. Is the market redesign solving problems that don’t exist?

Visit http://www.restructuringtoday.com/catalog/audiocds/30005621-1.html or call 1-800-486-8201 (202-298-8201) for more information.

Restructuring Today is the nation's leading news source chronicling ongoing efforts to open competitive wholesale and retail energy markets with in-depth analysis on why some fail while others succeed.

###