Modeling the Natural Gas Markets:
LDC Planning, Market Analysis and Implications for the Energy Markets
Los Altos, California
 

This workshop may be offered to individual companies at their convenience and will be customized to the specific needs of each organization.

Presented By
 
LCG Consulting
Los Altos, California 94022
Tel: (650) 962-9670
Fax: (650) 962-9615
www.energyonline.com

Objective

In this seminar we will explore the competitive energy market structure and focus on the role of the natural gas market modeling at both the LDC and aggregate market levels. We will discuss various aspects of modeling supply resources, demand centers, storage facilities, transportation pipelines, and transportation corridors.

Modeling the Energy Market

The seminar will cover issues involved in modeling energy markets and case studies with hands-on applications. The fundamentals of market simulation, dispatch, least cost planning and analysis of what drives the prices at the various hubs will be given significant attention. We will also briefly discuss the structure of the new electricity markets throughout the U.S.; and how they impact natural gas prices.

Experienced professionals will lead the participants through a variety of cases and provide hands-on sessions to model storage facilities, pipeline networks, supply resources, contractual specifications, firm and non-firm demand and financial aspects. The seminar will compare aspects of modeling that differentiate dispatch optimization from the integrated optimization. We will show you how to generate least cost plans that minimize the variable component of costs as well as the fixed demand charges such as the D1 and D2 costs. Specifically we will show you how to plan for expanding the capabilities of your gas system in a rational and systematic fashion. We will develop plans that will not only identify the least cost new capacity requirement levels but also the optimal timing of these new resources.

We will discuss details of modeling the North American Gas Market which provides the necessary price forecasting data needed to effectively and efficiently plan for your future supplies and operations. Modeling paradigms that include maximization of consumer-producer surplus will be discussed. Implications of supply side and demand side price elasticities and their impact on market prices at various hubs will be discussed. Thus we will show you how to model the market behavior and obtain price forecasts that are based upon sound economic principles as well as structural aspects of the actual interregional movement of gas.

LCG Consulting and the Presenters

LCG Consulting, actively involved in utility restructuring and competition in the U.S. and abroad, is an industry leader in providing specialized software and consulting services in the areas of integrated resource planning, financial analysis, utility power grid operations and the natural gas LDC operations. In addition to the UPLAN Network Power Model for the electricity markets, LCG has developed UPLAN-G for the modeling the natural gas systems and markets.

Your speakers and case study leaders are as follows:

Dr. Rajat Deb, President of LCG Consulting and chief architect of the UPLAN program, is an internationally recognized authority in electricity industry restructuring and power system modeling.

Mr. Richard Albert, VP Consulting of LCG, is an industry expert in resource planning and evaluation. He has over 25 years of experience in utility planning and has been project manager for more than 150 restructuring and integrated resource planning studies.

Ms. Lie-Long Hsue, Director of Software Development at LCG, is an expert in optimal power flow (OPF) and ancillary service modeling and optimization of gas market simulations.

For more information, please contact info@energyonline.com