• Dionysios Aliprantis (Litton Industries Assistant Professor of ECpE, ISU)
  dali AT iastate.edu
• Jim Bushnell (Cargill Chair in Energy Economics, and Director of the Biobased Industry Center, ISU)
  jimb AT iastate.edu
• Chengrui Cai (EPRC RA - Project 4, ECpE PhD Candidate, ISU)
  ccai AT iastate.edu
• Pedram Jahangiri (EPRC RA - Project 4, ECpE PhD Candidate, ISU)
  pedramj AT iastate.edu
• Diego Mejia (ISU ECpE PhD Candidate)
  diegomej AT iastate.edu
• Vishnu Nanduri (Assistant Professor, U of W-Milwaukee)
  vnanduri AT uwm.edu
• Sarah Ryan (Associate Professor, Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, ISU)
  smryan AT iastate.edu
• Abhishek Somani (EPRC RA - Project 3, ISU Econ Ph.D. Candidate, Cell: 515-708-3497)
  somaniabhishek AT yahoo.com
• Auswin George Thomas (EPRC RA - Project 4, ISU ECpE M.S. Student, Cell: 979-922-9853)
  auswin.george AT gmail.com
• Leigh Tesfatsion (E3 Group Co-Founder and Director, ISU Professor of Econ, Math, and ECpE, Heady 375, 515-294-7318)
  tesfatsi AT iastate.edu
• Lizhi Wang (Assistant Professor, Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Department, ISU)
  lzwang AT iastate.edu
• Huan Zhao (PNNL RA, Econ PhD Candidate, ISU, Cell: 626-384-7984)
  huanxjtu AT gmail.com
• Qun Zhou (EPRC RA - Project 2, ISU ECpE PhD/Econ MS Candidate, Coover 3108, Cell: 515-509-1525)
  zhouqun8508 AT gmail.com

• Charles Gieseler (Sandia National Lab, Albuquerque, NM; M.S. Comp Sci 2006)
  charles.gieseler AT gmail.com
• Deddy Koesrindartoto (Assistant Professor, School of Business and Management, ITB; Econ Ph.D. 2005)
  deddypri AT sbm.itb.ac.id
• Tryggvi Jonsson (Visiting PHD student from the Technical University of Denmark (Nov 2010- Feb 2011)
  trjo AT imm.dtu.dk
• Hongyan Li (Consulting Engineer, ABB Inc., Raleigh, NC, ISU ECpE PhD 2009, Cell: 515-441-1763)
  li.trileave AT gmail.com
• Chen-Ching Liu (E3 Group Co-Founder, Professor and Deputy Principal, College of Engineering, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences, National University of Ireland, Dublin)
  liu AT ucd.ie
• Haifeng Liu (CAISO; ISU ECpE Ph.D. 2007; ISU Econ M.S. 2008)
  hfliu AT iastate.edu
• Harold Salazar (Assoc. Prof. of EE, Technological University of Pereira, Columbia, Tel: +57 6 313-7122, Ext. 111; FAX: +57 6 313-7153, Ext. 116)
  hsi AT utp.edu.co
• Junjie Sun (Senior Financial Economist, OCC, U.S. Treasury; ISU Econ Ph.D. 2007)
  junjie.sun AT occ.treas.gov
• Yang Wang (Visiting PhD Student from Tsinghua University, 2009/2010)
  yangwang AT iastate.edu
• Ye Xia (Visiting PhD Student from Tsinghua University, 2009/2010, 515-203-5725 (cell))
  yexia AT iastate.edu
• Nanpeng Yu (Market Analyst, Southern California Edison, ISU ECpE PhD 2010, Econ MS Candidate, Cell: 626-720-7027)
  Eric.Yu AT gmail.com

Project Support

EPRC Project 4 (Integrated Retail/Wholesale Power Systems):

Sponsor: Electric Power Research Center (EPRC)

Title: "Integrated Retail and Wholesale Power System Operation with Smart-Grid Functionality"

Principle Investigators: Dionysios Aliprantis and Leigh Tesfatsion

Date of Award: Funding Start Date - August 2010

Duration of Award: Three years

PNNL Project (Integrated Retail/Wholesale Power Markets):

Sponsor: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory/Battelle

Title: "A Test Bed for the Integrated Experimental Study of Retail and Wholesale Power Market Designs"

Principal Investigator: Leigh Tesfatsion

Date of Award: Funding Start Date - June 2009

Duration of Award: Three years (conditional on successful end-of-year reviews)

EPRC Project 3 (ISO/GenCo Risk Management):

Sponsor: Electric Power Research Center (EPRC)

Title: "Financial and Operational Risk Management for Restructured Wholesale Power Markets"

Principle Investigator: Leigh Tesfatsion

Date of Award: Funding Start Date - August 2009

Duration of Award: Three years

EPRC Project 2 (ISO/GenCo Forecasting):

Sponsor: Electric Power Research Center (EPRC)

Title: "Forecasting Grid Congestion and Prices for Transmission Grid Operation and Investment"

Principle Investigators: Chen-Ching Liu and Leigh Tesfatsion

Date of Award: Funding Start Date - August 2007

Duration of Award: Three years

Project Homepage: http://econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/EPRCForecastGroup.htm

EPRC Project 1 (MISO Market Performance):

Sponsor: Electric Power Research Center (EPRC)

Title: "Testing the Efficiency and Reliability Impacts of MISO's Midwest Market Initiative"

Principle Investigators: Leigh Tesfatsion (Lead PI) and Herman C. Quirmbach

Date of Award: Funding Start Date - August 2006

Duration of Award: Three years

Project Homepage: http://econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/MISOEnergyGroup.htm

NSF Project (U.S. Bulk Energy Transportation Networks):

Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)

Title: "Decision Models for Bulk Energy Transportation Networks"

Program: Human and Social Dynamics Competition (Decision Making, Risk, and Uncertainty)

Principal Investigators:

Jim McCalley (Lead PI), Sarah Ryan, Stephen Sapp, & Leigh Tesfatsion

Date of Award: September 2005

Duration of Award: Three years (with Continuation)

Project Homepage: http://econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/NSFEnergy2005.htm

Project-Related Publications and Working Papers

Hongyan Li and Leigh Tesfatsion, "ISO Net Surplus Collection and Allocation in Wholesale Power Markets Under Locational Marginal Pricing" [(WP Preprint,pdf,822K), (PPT slides,1.6M)], IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 26, Issue 2, 2011, 627-641. (DOI Location).

Qun Zhou, Leigh Tesfatsion, and Chen-Ching Liu, "Short-Term Congestion Forecasting in Wholesale Power Markets" (WP pdf, 295K), IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 2011, to appear.

Hongyan Li and Leigh Tesfatsion, "Co-Learning Patterns as Weakly Emergent Phenomena in Wholesale Electric Power Markets" (pdf,1.4M), Working Paper No. 10042, Economics Department, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, December 2010.

Nanpeng Yu, Leigh Tesfatsion, and Chen-Ching Liu, "Financial Bilateral Contract Negotiation in Wholesale Power Markets using Nash Bargaining Theory" (pdf,788K), Working Paper No. 10032, Economics Department, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, July 2010.

Nanpeng Yu, Abhishek Somani, and Leigh Tesfatsion, "Financial Risk Management in Restructured Wholesale Power Markets: Concepts and Tools" (pdf,477K), Proceedings of the IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, July 2010.

Qun Zhou, Leigh Tesfatsion, and Chen-Ching Liu, "Global Sensitivity Analysis for the Short-Term Prediction of System Variables" (pdf,297K), Proceedings of the IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, July 2010.

Dionysios Aliprantis, Scott Penick, Leigh Tesfatsion, and Huan Zhao, "Integrated Retail and Wholesale Power System Operation with Smart-Grid Funcionality" (pdf,518K), Proceedings of the IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, July 2010.

Hongyan Li, Junjie Sun, and Leigh Tesfatsion, "Testing Institutional Arrangements via Agent-Based Modeling: A U.S. Electricity Market Application" (pdf,1.8M), ISU Economics Working Paper No. 10001. Latest Revision: 11 January 2010. To appear in H. Dawid and W. Semmler (Eds.), Computational Methods in Economic Dynamics, Springer, 2010.

Nanpeng Yu, Chen-Ching Liu, and James Price, “Evaluation of Market Rules Using a Multi-Agent Platform,”, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 25, 2010, 470-479.

Hongyan Li and Leigh Tesfatsion, "Development of Open Source Software for Power Market Research: The AMES Test Bed" (pdf preprint,601K), Journal of Energy Markets, Vol. 2, No. 2, Summer 2009, 111-128.

Leigh Tesfatsion, "Auction Basics for Wholesale Power Markets: Objectives and Pricing Rules" (pdf,504K), Proceedings of the IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, Calgary, Alberta, CA, July 26-30, 2009.

Hongyan Li and Leigh Tesfatsion, "The AMES Wholesale Power Market Test Bed: A Computational Laboratory for Research, Teaching, and Training" (pdf,930K), Proceedings of the Power and Energy Society General Meeting, Calgary, Alberta, CA, July 26-30, 2009.

Hongyan Li, Junjie Sun, and Leigh Tesfatsion, "Separation and Volatility of Locational Marginal Prices in Restructured Wholesale Power Markets" (pdf,2.3M), ISU Economics Working Paper #09009, June 2009.

Haifeng Liu, Leigh Tesfatsion, and A. A. Chowdhury, "Derivation of Locational Marginal Prices for Restructured Wholesale Power Markets", Journal of Energy Markets, Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring 2009, 3-27.

Note: An abridged version of this paper was presented at the IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, Calgary, CA, July 26-30, 2009.

Qun Zhou, Leigh Tesfatsion, and Chen-Ching Liu, "Scenario Generation for Price Forecasting in Restructured Wholesale Power Markets" (pdf,176K), Proceedings of the IEEE Power Systems & Exposition Conference, Seattle, WA, March 15-18, 2009.

Hongyan Li and Leigh Tesfatsion, "Capacity Withholding in Restructured Wholesale Power Markets: An Agent-Based Test Bed Study" (pdf,2.3M), Proceedings of th IEEE Power Systems & Exposition Conference, Seattle, WA, March 15-18, 2009.

Abhishek Somani and Leigh Tesfatsion, "An Agent-Based Test Bed Study of Wholesale Power Market Performance Measures" (pdf,2.8M), IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 4, November 2008, 56-72.

Hongyan Li, Junjie Sun, and Leigh Tesfatsion, "Dynamic LMP Response Under Alternative Price-Cap and Price-Sensitive Demand Scenarios" (pdf,465K), Proceedings of the IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, July 20-24, 2008.

Nanpeng Yu, Chen-Ching Liu, and Leigh Tesfatsion, "Modeling of Suppliers’ Learning Behaviors in an Electricity Market Environment" (pdf,277K), International Journal of Engineering Intelligent Systems, vol. 15, no. 2, 2007, 115-121.

Junjie Sun and Leigh Tesfatsion, "Dynamic Testing of Wholesale Power Market Designs: An Open-Source Agent-Based Framework", Computational Economics, Volume 30, Number 3, 2007, pp. 291-327. This article is an abridged version of ISU Economics Working Paper No. 06025 (pdf,2.2MB).

Junjie Sun and Leigh Tesfatsion, "An Agent-Based Computational Laboratory for Wholesale Power Market Design" (pdf,724K), Proceedings of the IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, Tampa, Florida, June 2007.

Junjie Sun and Leigh Tesfatsion, "Open-Source Software for Power Industry Research, Teaching, and Training: A DC-OPF Illustration" (pdf,115K), Proceedings of the IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, Tampa, Florida, June 2007.

Junjie Sun and Leigh Tesfatsion, "DC Optimal Power Flow Formulation and Testing Using QuadProgJ" (pdf,526K), ISU Economics Working Paper No. 06014, Department of Economics, Iowa State University, Revised July 2007.

Junjie Sun and Wenzhuo Shang, "Evaluating the Performance of Financial Transmission Rights Auctions: Evidence from the U.S. Midwest Energy Region" (pdf), Dissertation Chapter, November 2006.

Steven Widergren, Junjie Sun, and Leigh Tesfatsion, "Market Design Test Environments" (pdf preprint,136K), Proceedings of the IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, Montreal, June 2006.

Open Source Software Releases

AMES Wholesale Power Market Test Bed (Java): A Free Open Source Computational Laboratory for the Agent-Based Modeling of Electricity Systems

The AMES Wholesale Power Market Test Bed, developed entirely in Java by Hongyan Li, Junjie Sun, and Leigh Tesfatsion, is an extensible and modular agent-based computational laboratory for studying the dynamic efficiency and reliability of wholesale power markets restructured in accordance with guidelines issued by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. AMES models strategically-learning traders interacting over time in an ISO-managed wholesale power market operating over a transmission grid subject to congestion effects. Congestion on the grid is managed by means of locational marginal prices derived from optimal power flow solutions.

AMES is a free open source tool suitable for research, teaching, and training applications. It is designed for the intensive experimental study of small to medium-sized systems. A graphical user interface permits the creation, modification, analysis and storage of scenarios, parameter initialization and editing, specification of behavioral rules (e.g. learning methods) for market participants, and output reports through table and chart displays. AMES is an acronym for Agent-based Modeling of Electricity Systems.

DCOPFJ (Java): A Free Open Source Solver for DC Optimal Power Flow Problems

The DCOPFJ Package, developed entirely in Java by Junjie Sun and Leigh Tesfatsion, is a free open source stand-alone solver for small to medium-sized DC optimal power flow problems having a strictly convex quadratic programming (SCQP) formulation.

The DCOPFJ package incorporates an SCQP solver (QuadProgJ) wrapped in an outer SI-to-PU data processing shell. QuadProgJ implements the well-known dual active-set SCQP algorithm developed by Goldfarb and Idnani (1983). QuadProgJ has been shown to match or exceed the accuracy of the proprietary C-language QP solver BPMPD (highly recommended by MATPOWER) when tested on a public repository of small to medium-sized SCQP problems.

The DCOPFJ package has been successfully run on DC-OPF test cases commonly used for training purposes.

Project-Related Presentations to External Groups (Ordered by Date of Presentation)

• Nanpeng Yu and Abhishek Somani, "Financial Risk Management in Restructured Wholesale Power Markets: Concepts and Tools" IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, Mpls, MN, 29 July 2010.

• Qun Zhou, "Global Sensitivity Analysis for the Short-Term Prediction of System Variables", IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, 29 July 2010.

• Huan Zhao, "Integrated Retail/Wholesale Power System Operation with Smart-Grid Functionality", IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, Mpls, MN, 28 July 2010.

• Leigh Tesfatsion, "Agent-Based Modeling of Electric Power Markets" DARPA/ISAT Workshop on Societal Resilience, MIT RLE Conference Center, Cambridge, MA, July 12-13, 2010.

• Leigh Tesfatsion, "An Agent-Based Testbed for the Integrated Study of Retail and Wholesale Power System Operations" Agent Technologies for Energy Systems (ATES) Workshop, Ninth International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, Toronto, Canada, May 2010.

• Leigh Tesfatsion, "Auction Basics for Wholesale Power Markets: Objectives and Pricing Rules", IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, Calgary, CA, July 26-30, 2009.

• Hongyan Li, "The AMES Wholesale Power Market Test Bed: A Computational Laboratory for Research, Teaching, and Training", IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, Calgary, CA, July 26-30, 2009.

• Leigh Tesfatsion, "Development of Open Source Software for Power Market Research: An Illustrative Case Study", IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, Calgary, CA, July 26-30, 2009.

• Leigh Tesfatsion, "From Human-Subject Experiments to Computational Agent Experiments (and Everything In Between): An Illustrative Integrated Test Bed for Electricity Markets, Plenary Address, Economic Science Association Meeting, Arlington, VA, June 27, 2009.

• Leigh Tesfatsion, "Stress Testing Institutional Arrangements via Agent-Based Modeling: Illustrative Results for U.S. Power Markets", ICES/Department of Economics, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, April 3, 2009.

• Qun Zhou, "Scenario Generation for Price Forecasting in Restructured Wholesale Power Markets", IEEE Power Systems Conference and Exposition, Seattle, WA, March 15-18, 2009.

• Hongyan Li, "Capacity Withholding in Restructured Wholesale Power Markets: An Agent-Based Test Bed Study", IEEE Power Systems Conference and Exposition, Seattle, WA, March 15-18, 2009.

• Junjie Sun, "Dynamic LMP Response Under Alternative Price-Cap and Price-Sensitive Demand Scenarios", Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS), Washington DC, October 12-15, 2008.

• Leigh Tesfatsion "Dynamic LMP Response Under Alternative Price-Cap and Price-Sensitive Demand Scenarios", IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh, PA, July 21-24, 2008.

• Nanpeng Yu, "Multi-Agent Systems and Electricity Markets: State-of-the-Art and the Future", IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh, PA, July 20-24, 2008.

• Junjie Sun, "Dynamic Price Response Under Alternative Price-Cap and Price-Sensitive Demand Scenarios", Summer North American Meetings of the Econometric Society, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, June, 2008.

• Junjie Sun, "Dynamic LMP Response Under Alternative Price-Cap and Price-Sensitive Demand Scenarios", International Industrial Organization Conference (IIOC), Washington, D.C., May 16-18, 2008.

• Leigh Tesfatsion, "Agent-Based Test Beds for Critical Infrastructure Research, Teaching, and Training", Department of Energy - National Renewable Energy Laboratory (DOE-NREL), Washington, D.C., February 22, 2008.

• Lynne Kiesling and Leigh Tesfatsion, "A Test Bed for the Integrated Experimental Study of Retail and Wholesale Power Market Designs: Seaming GridLab-D with AMES", Tele-Seminar and Webcast, sponsored by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), February 15, 2008.

• Leigh Tesfatsion, "Agent-Based Test Beds for Power Industry Research, Teaching, and Training", Tele-Seminar and Webcast, sponsored by the Power Systems Energy Research Center (PSERC), Cornell University, February 5, 2008.

• Leigh Tesfatsion, "Agent-Based Test Beds for Critical Infrastructure Research, Teaching, and Training", Plenary Address, AGENT 2007, Northwestern University, November 17, 2007.

• Nanpeng Yu, "Modeling of Suppliers' Learning Behaviors in an Electricity Market Environment", 14th International Conference on Intelligent Systems Applications to Power Systems (ISAP 2007), Kaohsiung, Taiwan, November 5, 2007.

• Leigh Tesfatsion, "Open-Source Software for Power Industry Research, Teaching, and Training: A DC-OPF Illustration", IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting, Tampa, Florida, June 25-28, 2007.

• Leigh Tesfatsion, "An Agent-Based Computational Laboratory for Wholesale Power Market Design", IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting, Tampa, Florida, June 25-28, 2007.

• Hongyan Li, "Graphic User Interface (GUI) for the AMES Software Package: Test-Bed for the Study of Restructured Power Markets", Poster Session, IEEE Power Engineering Systems General Meeting, Tampa, Florida, June 25-28, 2007.

• Junjie Sun, "Dynamic Testing of Wholesale Power Market Designs: An Agent-Based Computational Approach", North American Meetings of the Econometric Society, Duke University, Durham, NC, June 21-24, 2007.

• Junjie Sun, "Dynamic Testing of Wholesale Power Market Designs: An Agent-Based Computational Approach", 13th International Conference on Computing in Economics and Finance, Society for Computational Economics, Montreal, Canada, June 14-16, 2007.

• Hongyan Li, "MISO Market Performance: An Open-Source Computational Test-Bed", Forty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the Electric Power Research Center, Power Affiliate Research Program, Schemann Building, Iowa State University, May 9, 2007.

• Junjie Sun, "Dynamic Testing of Wholesale Power Market Designs: An Agent-Based Computational Approach", 5th Annual International Industrial Organization Conference (IIOC), Savannah, Georgia, April 14-15, 2007.

• Leigh Tesfatsion, "Agent-Based Computational Economics: A Constructive Approach to Economic Theory" Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, January 5-7, 2007.

• Junjie Sun, "Agent-Based Test Beds for Market Design", Allied Social Science Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, January 5-7, 2007.

• Junjie Sun, "Dynamic Testing of Wholesale Power Market Designs: An Agent-Based Computational Approach", INFORMS annual meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, November 5-8, 2006.

• Junjie Sun, "Dynamic Testing of Wholesale Power Market Designs: An Open-Source Agent-Based Framework", presented (poster session) at the Institute of Computational Economics (ICE) Summer School, University of Chicago and Argonne National Lab, July 17-22, 2006.
  Note: Selected by the ICE'06 Directors as one of three equally-ranked "winners" among all poster presentations.

  Leigh Tesfatsion, "Dynamic Testing of Wholesale Power Market Designs: An Open-Source Agent-Based Framework" presented at the VII Trento Summer School: Intensive Course on Agent-Based Computational Economics, Sardagna-Trento, Italy, July 17, 2006.

  Leigh Tesfatsion, "Agent-Based Computational Economics: A Constructive Approach to Economic Theory" (pdf,532K), Plenary Address, Computing in Economics and Finance (CEF'2006), sponsored by the Society for Computational Economics, Limassol, Cyprus, June 23, 2006.

  Abstract: This talk provides a brief overview the Agent-based Computational Economics (ACE) methodology. Concepts are concretely illustrated using recent work on the development of an ACE framework for exploring the performance of market designs for restructured wholesale power markets.

  Steven Widergren, Junjie Sun, and Leigh Tesfatsion, "Market Design Test Environments" (presented by Steven Widergren), IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting, Montreal, Canada, June 2006.

  Leigh Tesfatsion, NSF Project & EPRC MISO Project: Brief Overview of Work to Date, Presented to a joint meeting of members from the Iowa Utilities Board and the ISU NSF/EPRC MISO projects, Heady 568B, 12-2:00pm, ISU, April 21, 2006.

  Leigh Tesfatsion, Dynamic Testing of Wholesale Power Market Designs: An Agent-Based Computational Approach", International Industrial Organization Conference (IIOC), Northeastern University, Boston, MA, April 8, 2006.

Background Readings

• Frank Huntowski, Neil Fisher, and Aaron Patterson, Embrace Electric Competition or it's Déjà Vu All Over Again (pdf,586K), The Northbridge Group, October 2008.
  Abstract: The authors of this carefully documented report assess the historical antecedents and current state of restructuring of wholesale and retail electric power markets in the U.S. They also address substantive criticisms of this restructuring movement. They conclude that the case for restructuring is still compelling based both on economic principles and empirical evidence.

  FERC, "Final Report to Congress on Competition in the Wholesale and Retail Markets for Electric Energy" (pdf,1.6M), U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Accessed: April 27, 2007. See, also, the comment on an earlier draft of this report released on 6/26/06 by Lynne Kiesling and Michael Giberson (Mercatus Center, George Mason University).

  Abstract: This report, required by Secton 1815 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, provides an overview and summarizes progress in the U.S. toward wholesale and retail competition over the past 25 years, the current state of wholesale and retail competition in the U.S., and the economic and political issues surrounding the transition to wholesale and retail competition.

  Timothy J. Brennan, Karen L. Palmer, and Salvador A. Martinez, Alternating Currents: Electricity Markets and Public Policy, Resources for the Future, Washington, D.C., 2002.

  Abstract (from the book jacket): "(This book) provides a timely (nontechnical) overview and analysis of the concerns facing industry regulators, legislators, and others as they consider whether, when, and how to open electricity markets. (The authors) offer background on the history of regulatory policy and the technology for producing and delivering electric power. They then provide insights into the policy degates and economic issues involved in eleven important topics, including industry structure, system integrity and reliability, the mitigation of market power, and environment protection."

  Jack Casazza and Frank Delea, Understanding Electric Power Systems: An Overview of the Technology and the Marketplace, IEEE Press, Wiley-Interscience, 2003.

  Abstract: "(This book) bridges the gaps between technology, government policy, economics and finance, business arrangements, and the Internet - helping the reader to understand the interrelationship of the many aspects of the provision of electric power supply. ... For engineers, policymakers, and students alike, (this book) provides a high-level overview of how electric power is generated, transmitted, and controlled in the United States."

  William W. Hogan, "Market Design and Electricity Restructuring" (pdf,209K), Presentation to the Association of Power Exchanges (APEx), 2005 Annual Conference, Orlando, Florida, November 1, 2005.

  Abstract: The author reviews the tortured history of electricity restructuring in the U.S. and outlines the requirements for SMD ("Successful Market Design").

  Paul Joskow, "Markets for Power in the United States: An Interim Assessment" (pdf,5.4MB), The Energy Journal, Volume 27, Number 1, 2006, pp. 1-36.

  Abstract: "The transition to competitive wholesale and retail markets for electricity in the U.S. has been a difficult and contentious process. This paper examines the progress that has been made in the evolution of wholesale and retail electricity market institutions. Various indicia of the performance of these market institutions are presented and discussed. Significant progress has been made on the wholesale competition front but major challenges must still be contronted. The framework for supporting retail competition has been less successful, especially for small customers. Empirical evidence suggests that well-designed competitive market reforms have led to performance improvements in a number of dimensions and benefited customers through lower retail prices.

  Paul Twomey, Richard Green, Karsten Neuhoff, and David Newbery, A Review of the Monitoring of Market Power: The Possible Roles of TSOs in Monitoring for Market Power Issues in Congested Transmission Systems (WP pdf,664K), (Slides pdf,897K), Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, Sloan School of Management, MIT, 05-002 WP, March 2005.

  Abstract: The paper surveys the literature and publicly available information on market power monitoring in electricity wholesale markets. After briefly reviewing definitions, strategies and methods of mitigating market power we examine the various methods of detecting market power that have been employed by academics and market monitors/regulators. These techniques include structural and behavioural indices and analysis as well as various simulation approaches. The applications of these tools range from spot market mitigation and congestion management through to long-term market design assessment and merger decisions. Various market-power monitoring units already track market behaviour and produce indices. Our survey shows that these units collect a large amount of data from various market participants and we identify the crucial role of the transmission system operators with their access to dispatch and system information. Easily accessible and comprehensive data supports effective market power monitoring and facilitates market design evaluation. The discretion required for effective market monitoring is facilitated by institutional independence.

Online Resource Materials

• General Resources on Electricity Restructuring

• Agent-Based Computational Electricity Research

• EE/Econ 458: Economic Systems for Electric Power Planning
  Note: This power economics course has been designed for long-distance access. All lecture notes and assigned readings are posted on-line.

• Open-Source Software for Electricity Market Research, Teaching, and Training

• The MISO-PJM Joint and Common Market Site maintains a MISO/PJM Dynamic LMP Contour Map for real-time LMPs, updated every finve minutes.

• The New England Independent System Operator (ISO-NE) maintains ISO-NE Dynamic LMP Contour Maps for both day-ahead and real-time LMPs, refreshed every five minutes. Note: Viewing the contour maps at this site requires a Java-enabled browser.

• The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) maintains NYISO LMP Contour Maps for both day-ahead and real-time LMPs, refreshed every two minutes. Note: Viewing the contour maps at this site requires a Java-enabled browser.

• The PowerWorld Simulator, a licensed energy model developed by PowerWorld Inc., is an interactive package for the analysis of power systems. In addition to optimal AC and DC power flows, it provides detailed modeling of LTC (load tap changer) and phase-shifting transformers, switched shunts, generator reactive capability curves, generator cost curves, load schedules, transaction schedules, dc lines, multi-section lines, and remote bus voltage control. There is also an attempt to include economic data into the power flow solution to evaluate the economic importance of a system change. A demonstration model can be obtained at the PowerWorld site free of charge.

Miscellaneous

• Steven Jones, "Power Switch: Software Looks to be Better Test of Wholesale Power Markets", Around LAS, Iowa State University, October 15, 2007.
  Note: Media report on the development of the AMES Market Test Bed by research team Hongyan Li, Junjie Sun, and Leigh Tesfatsion.