Subject: re : fw : pserc nuggets related to market stem
hello shmuel ,
thanks for your message . the end of 2000 and the beginning of 2001 were
extremely busy
and i could not focus on pserc issues . i shall consult a few people in enron
on this subject and get in
touch with you . our concern right now is that the results of research are
widely shared with
our competition .
i am out on the 19 th , but the 20 th would work for me . i would be glad to
cover the cost of your austin
to houston trip .
regarding your son . the analyst / associate program will interview again on
the campus
in the spring and they will be more than happy to interview him .
" shmuel oren " on 12 / 19 / 2000 01 : 40 : 02 pm
to :
cc : " dennis ray " , ,
subject : fw : pserc nuggets related to market stem
hello vince
happy holidays .
i wanted to connect with you regarding the possibility of enron joining
pserc . as you might have heard from lance and alex we are going through a
transition period having doubled the number of universities and industry
members within the last year . consequently , our business processes are not
well developed . one of the problems we are facing is the balance between the
electrical engineering folks and industry members that are more interested
in market related research . i hope to recruit more of the later so tat we
have more of a constituency in the advisory board that sees the value of
market related research . i already have a verbal commitment from people at
electrabell that expressed interest in joining pserc . with members like
electrabell and enron we will be able to support more market stem projects
such as the one that shijie deng proposed ( not funded in this round ) . please
let me know if i can do anything to facilitate the decision at enron . i am
going to be in austin on january 19 to participate at a puct hearing and
could come through huston for a visit . attached are some items that i shared
with our pserc members and thought that you might be interested in them as
well .
regards , shmuel .
- - - - - original message - - - - -
from : " shmuel oren "
to : " power systems engineering research center "
sent : tuesday , december 19 , 2000 9 : 47 am
subject : re : pserc nuggets related to market stem
> the following are 3 items that demonstrate the impact of pserc research in
> the market stem area .
>
> 1 . on december 12 , i ( shmuel oren ) testified at a hearing in san
francisco
> before the blue ribbon panel ( chaired by alfred kahn ) for the that is
> investigating the implications of uniform price vs . pay as bid auctions in
> the california px . as part of my testimony i presented a movie produced
by
> tim mount and bob thomas that show results of an experimental economic
study
> showing how bidders respond by raising their bids in a pay as bid auction .
> following is an acknowledgement i received .
>
> dear shmuel :
>
>
> thank you for attending the blue ribbon panel this past tuesday in san
> francisco . your presentation was very informative and valuable to all the
> panel members and other participants . the panel greatly appreciates your
> involvement in this important project .
>
>
> thanks again ,
> natalie efland
>
>
> 2 . a recent e - mail from the texas puc
>
> professor oren , i hope you and your family are doing well . we are
seriously
> considering your help and advice to facilitate the commission ' s final
> decision regarding retail competition in ercot .
>
> i wanted to let you know that ercot stakeholders filled an application
for
> approval of the ercot protocols in november . we received comments
including
> list of issues on november 22 and reply comments on december 1 . staff
will
> draft and submit a preliminary order to the commissioners for their
> discussion on december 13 . there will be a pre - hearing on december 15
when
> parties will be asked to brief the commission on list of issues by the end
> of first week in january . there will be a hearing on january 16 followed
> with another hearing if needed . parties have asked the commission to
> finalize its decision by mid march .
>
> to give you some more background , i have to mention that almost most of
your
> suggestions were accepted and will be reflected in the final protocols ,
> except for problems with intra - zonal gaming regarding congestion
management
> and pay - as - bid compensation for selected ancillary services . a few
> additional concerns are raised regarding ancillary services and congestion
> management . stakeholders are still working toward more load participation
> in ercot market . however , the main problem is the fact that market ( pilot
> that covers 100 % of wholesale , but only 5 % of retail load ) will be open on
> june 1 , 2001 based on a version of the protocols locked on august 1 , 2000 .
> ( that was the deadline for ercot to give a final design to anderson
> consulting . ) that version does not include some of your recommendations
to
> address market design flaws . the full version is highly possible to be
> implemented by january 1 , 2002 when market for 100 % retail competition is
> scheduled to open . given this gap , some parties have recommended not to
> implement incomplete protocols and wait for full implementation by january
> 2002 . in other words , they say let ' s go ahead with 5 % pilot retail load ,
> but wait for full design implementation before allowing 100 % wholesale
load
> ( and retail load ) be subject to the rules of the game described in the
final
> protocols .
>
> thanks .
>
> parviz adib , ph . d .
> director of market oversight division
> public utility commission of texas
> 1701 n . congress avenue
> p . o . box 13326
> austin , texas 78711 - 3326
> ph . no . : 512 - 936 - 7365
>
> 3 . the following is a segment from a published summary of the dec 13 puct
> hearing . this segment describes the commision ' s deliberation on an agenda
> item addressing the possibility of instituting price caps as part of the
> ercot protocols . ( see reference to my involvement in the next to last
> paragraph )
>
> docket no . 23220 - petition of the electric reliability council of texas
> for approval of the ercot protocols . ( discussion and possible action )
> parviz adib , jess totten , keith rogas , and tammy cooper
> chairman wood turned to page 2 item number 3 of the draft order
identifying
> issues , recommending that the word " including " be changed to " other than "
in
> the parentheses . he thinks they know the ups and downs of the two
> mechanisms , which are bid caps and price caps , but would not mind having
> parties focus on what other protections might be used . commissioner walsh
> would say " including , but not limited to " because she does not think it is
a
> bad idea for ercot to at least consider in their protocols a fail - safe
> mechanism . it ' s kind of like the stock market suspending trading when
> something crazy happens . they could consider a maximum scenario , such as
> " we don ' t think this will ever happen but if it does we need to muffle
it " ,
> whether it is $ 1 , 000 or $ 99 or whatever it is . they could consider
whether
> to put into the protocols a self - enacting price cap . while not expecting
it
> to happen , if it did , you don ' t have to declare it an emergency and have
the
> commission have to act . chairman wood asked if they could leave the
> question without the parenthetical at all and just say " what protections
> should be added to avoid extreme price spikes . " commissioner walsh
> reiterated that she wants ercot to think about the unlikely possibility of
> unacceptable price spikes . she would like for them to have their own
> fail - safe mechanism that is self - initiating as opposed to leaving that to
> having someone have to come in and act . commissioner perlman stated that
he
> thinks the california - type price caps is what the concern is about . he
> thinks everyone in this state is opposed to those , but he thinks the point
> commissioner walsh is making is an interesting one . he had not thought
> about the circuit breaker idea , and it might have some merit . he agreed
> that it was worth considering something like that . then the question
> becomes what the level is . chairman wood suggested the wording " what
> self - implementing protections should be added to avoid the price spikes .
> commissioner perlman said he did not think anyone is talking about $ 250
> price caps . commissioner walsh agreed , but noted that if the unexpected
> happens we should be prepared . commissioner perlman indicated that if
> someone is making $ 10 , 000 in one particular hour that it probably does not
b
> enefit the market and is probably a windfall to them . it is not something
> they would normally put in their business plan for determining whether
they
> are going to build a plant in texas . chairman wood stated that they want
to
> lean toward the market as heavily as they can on these issues .
>
> chairman wood noted that some of these issues date back to when dr . oren
was
> assisting the commission , and asked if he could be brought back again .
> staffer dr . parviz adib said that staff had already talked to dr . oren and
> that he is available to assist the commission further . chairman wood
noted
> that dr . oren had helped people think outside the box without just
focusing
> on california .
>
> the final wording was clarified to state " self - implementing mechanisms "
and
> to delete the parenthetical part of the sentence in question . the order
was
> approved as amended .
>
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