Power Costs Inc.

AECC Selects PCI for MISO and SPP Market Operations

powercosts — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:01:54 +0000

Norman, Oklahoma – January 4, 2012 – Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. (AECC) has selected Power Costs, Inc. (PCI) to supply its SPP and MISO software needs. AECC has licensed the PCI GenManager Market Operating System for the MISO and the SPP Energy Imbalance Service (EIS) Market, as well as for the upcoming SPP Integrated Marketplace. PCI’s software will manage all of the market interactions between AECC and the markets including Deal Management, eTagging, complete Shadow Settlements and Data Warehousing. “We are thrilled to include AECC to the PCI family of clients. We look forward to working with them and having a long term partnership to meeting their software needs for the SPP and MISO markets” said Jason Hebert, Vice President of Professional Services and Sales.

“Our in-house developed systems would have required significant upgrades and redesign to deal with the new markets. For AECC’s needs, PCI offered the best combination of flexibility, capability and expertise in a single vendor-maintained product,” said Keith Sugg, principal engineer of dispatching with AECC.

Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. (AECC) is a generation and transmission cooperative that provides power for nearly 500,000 customers throughout Arkansas and surrounding states. Long considered one of the top generation and transmission cooperatives in the nation, AECC has developed a diverse portfolio of generation assets to optimize service and reliable, low cost power to its 17 electric distribution cooperative members. Learn more at AECC.com.

Download press release.

Maximizing Value of Genco Assets in the ERCOT Nodal Market: February 22-23, 2012

powercosts — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:09:19 +0000

Maximizing Value of Genco Assets in the ERCOT Nodal Market: February 22-23, 2012

Maximizing Value of Genco Assets in the MISO Market – November 14-15, 2011

powercosts — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 18:03:23 +0000

Maximizing Value of Genco Assets in the MISO Market – November 14-15, 2011

PCI Announces SPP Integrated Marketplace Software Solution

powercosts — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 22:58:57 +0000

As the leading software and consulting service provider to the current Southwest Power Pool (SPP) Energy Imbalance Service (EIS) Market, Power Costs, Inc. (PCI) is proud to unveil its comprehensive software solutions for the new SPP Integrated Marketplace. PCI’s Integrated Marketplace Software Solution is designed to maximize operational value, streamline processes and help automate and optimize key functions in the new market that will introduce a number of new market instruments and operational complexities.

PCI has worked closely with the RTO and SPP market participants to create an easy software upgrade path from the EIS Market to the Integrated Marketplace. For years, PCI has been successful in supplying software to participants in other markets that already incorporate many aspects of the impending SPP Integrated Marketplace such as Day-Ahead Market, Transmission Congestion Rights, Reliability Unit Commitment, Real-Time Balancing and Price-Based Procurement of Operating Reserves. As a comprehensive software solutions provider, PCI offers SPP members an end-to-end platform that fully automates and optimizes critical functions including:

Portfolio Optimization, Analytics and Planning
Front Office Operations: SPP Communications, Bidding/Offering, Analytics, and Market Strategies
Back Office Operations: Shadow Settlement, Pre-Settlements, Energy Accounting, Transmission Settlements, ISO Settlements and Settlement Disputes
Profit and Loss Analysis: Identifying revenue leakages between the Day-Ahead and Real-Time Balancing Markets as well as determining profits by resources and expenses by load
Deal Management: Entry and management of all transactions and products in SPP’s EIS market, as well as the Integrated Marketplace including e-Tagging and OASIS reservations
Data Warehousing: Management and movement of large data volumes necessary to speed-up analysis and reporting using information from PCI and non-PCI sources

PCI’s SPP solution can be installed on-site or accessed from a fully hosted, secure, disaster-recovery site. Either installation method is backed by PCI’s experienced and renowned client support staff. PCI’s software architecture is engineered to integrate seamlessly with other software systems, allowing a company to economically install all — or only part of — our overall solutions suite.

PCI partners with SPP market participants such as OG&E, KCP&L, Westar, EDE and Xcel, as well as others who cite the firm’s stability, software capability and performance, market experience, financial strength, fair pricing and world-class customer support as primary reasons for doing business.

Download press release .

Managing the Bid-to-Bill in the New SPP Integrated Marketplace: October 20-21, 2011

swright — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 03:19:34 +0000

Managing the Bid to Bill Workflow in the New SPP Integrated Marketplace – October 20-21, 2011

Maximizing the Value of GENCO Assets in the PJM Market – September 13-14, 2011

swright — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:33:37 +0000

Maximizing-the-Value-of-GENCO-Assets-in-the-PJM-Market-September-13-14-2011

Validating Settlement Charges in the CAISO MRTU Market: August 10-11, 2011

swright — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:46:17 +0000

Validating-Settlement-Charges-in-the-CAISO-MRTU-Market-on-August-10-11-2011

PCI Welcomes Santee Cooper to Growing List of US Clients

powercosts — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 22:17:12 +0000

Houston, Texas – August 5, 2011 – Santee Cooper will deploy the PCI GSMS Suite to optimize short-term unitcommitment, price transactions, run post-analysis, forecast mid-term and long-term production costs, and perform risk evaluation. The PCI GSMS Suite (PCI GenTrader, PCI GenPortal, and PCI GenBase) is currently used in the production
mode at more than 50 utilities in the U.S.

“We are very pleased that Santee Cooper will use our PCI software suite for both short-term and long-term planning,” said Khai Le, vice president of PCI. “Our PCI GSMS Suite provides Santee Cooper a powerful IT infrastructure and complex analytics to optimize its generation portfolio and capture greater production-cost savings.”

South Carolina Public Service Authority (Santee Cooper) is South Carolina’s state-owned electric and water utility. As the state’s largest power producer, Santee Cooper supplies electricity to more than 163,000 retail customers in Berkeley, Georgetown, and Horry counties, as well as to 31 large industrial facilities, the cities of Bamberg and Georgetown, and the Charleston Air Force Base. Santee Cooper also generates the power distributed by the state’s 20 electric cooperatives to more than 685,000 customers in all 46 counties. Approximately 2 million South Carolinians receive their power directly or indirectly from Santee Cooper. The utility also provides water to 137,000 consumers in Berkeley and Dorchester counties, as well as the town of Santee, South Carolina.

Download press release.

PCI Hosts Annual User Conference – PCI showcases latest technology in generation supply management

powercosts — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:10:20 +0000

Norman, Oklahoma – June 9, 2011 – Power Costs, Inc. (PCI) hosted its annual User Conference in Newport Beach, California, Wednesday, May 18 through Friday, May 20, 2011, at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa. Showcasing the latest technology in generation supply management software, the “More Power To You” theme concentrated on delivering the latest software solutions to energy focused companies and welcomed more than 20 speakers from different energy markets to discuss challenges and subsequent opportunities in the power industry.

“It was wonderful to see the well-prepared presentations and be part of the information exchanged across our energy industry colleagues,” said Fred Lee, president of PCI. “The success of our data warehouse and business intelligence tools, combined with our expanded optimization techniques, provides more power to quickly incorporate key metrics to increase profitability.”

PCI’s front-and-back office systems now include all U.S. ISO markets and provide power to multi-market customers. “It is our goal to continue to provide more power to our end users, as well as quality service to our clients,” Lee said.

One of the highlights of the conference included interactive sessions with PCI experts providing one-on-one demonstrations of the company’s generation supply management software. For every attendee who participated in at least four demos, their name was entered in a drawing for a prized iPad 2.

At the close of the conference, PCI hosted a roundtable discussion to initiate feedback and address client specific needs. “We received important feedback and are looking forward to seeing everyone at next year’s conference,” Lee said.

Media may access conference presentations via secure login through PCI’s website. Please contact Elise Brooking, PCI media contact, at 832.200.8237 for the login and password. http://support.powercosts.com/userconference-presentations.

Download press release.

How operating constraints impact the value of combined-cycle plants

swright — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 17:19:54 +0000

How operating constraints impact the value of combined-cycle plants
Combined Cycle Journal