Electric Industry Overview - Canadian version

• Electricity consumers and their needs
• The components of the physical system, how it is designed to deliver electricity to end users and the physical properties of electricity that affect how the system is designed and operated
• How the physical system is operated for maximum efficiency, reliability and safety
• How and why the electric industry is regulated
• What areas of the industry are deregulated and how this affects markets and the services offered in them
• How electric markets function, the various services offered in them and how these services are priced
  

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• Any employee new to the electric industry
• New managers needing a broader understanding of the electric business
• Professionals moving into the electric industry from another industry
• Engineers working in the electric industry who need to understand how the business operates
• Energy industry employees with experience limited to one or two departments needing a broader business overview
• Sales professionals providing services to the electric industry
• Finance, accounting, legal, public relations, or regulatory professionals
• Technical professionals becoming involved in regulatory or business issues

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Introduction

• Course objectives
• Why electricity is unique and critical
• Units

Electricity Customers

• The three key types of end-use customers (residential, commercial, industrial)
• Wholesale customers (utilities, marketers)
• Number of customers and usage by customer class (U.S. and Canada)
• The importance of peak demand
• Key residential electric use
• Key commercial electric use
• Key industrial electric use
• Aggregate demand, daily and seasonal load curves, annual and seasonal peak demand
• Services available to satisfy customer needs (bundled utility service, unbundled utility distribution with competitive supply service, self-generation, alternate fuels, energy efficiency)
• Typical utility rate structures (flat rate, time-of-use, demand charges, green power)
• Average rates and electric prices by state and province

The Electric Delivery System

• The 5 steps involved in generation and transmission supply planning
• Distribution system planning and how this differs
• Characteristics of the various generation types (operational, financial and environmental)
• Generation costs (capital, variable and levelized)
• How demand side management is used as an alternative to generation
• The generation supply curve (how supply is matched to demand)
• The electrical transmission system (description, costs and characteristics)
• The electrical distribution system (description, costs and characteristics)
• How system designers and operators balance reliability with cost control

Electric System Operations

• The 4 key physical characteristics of electrical systems
• The functions of a system (control area) operator
• NERC reliability standards
• The responsibilities of NERC and the regional reliability entities
• How system operators create a daily resource plan
• What ancillary services are and how they are scheduled (automatic generation control or AGC, spinning reserve, non-spinning reserve, supplemental reserve, voltage support or VARs, black start)
• Transmission scheduling and power flow models
• How a system operator balances the system in real time
• How cascading outages are avoided

Electric Regulation

• What regulation is and does
• Why the electric industry is regulated
• The traditional electric market structure
• Competitive market participants under traditional regulation (non-utility generators and marketers)
• 5 functions of regulation
• Who the regulators are (federal, state/provincial and local) and what areas of the industry they regulate
• The federal and state/provincial regulatory compacts
• How the regulatory process works
• Four types of regulatory proceedings (rulemakings, rate cases, certificate cases, complaint cases)
• The ratemaking process, step-by-step
• Incentive regulation and why this may be preferred over traditional regulation
• The ways in which regulation impacts monopoly companies and other market participants

Electric Deregulation

• The possible benefits of restructuring electric markets
• 6 goals of regulators in restructuring
• A brief history of U.S. and Canadian restructuring
• The 4 basic market structure models (ranging from monopoly markets to full retail competition)
• Which regulator (FERC vs. state/province) is responsible for restructuring which markets
• How competitive markets acquire necessary resources (energy, ancillary services, transmission, real-time balancing, long-term capacity)
• How ISO auctions work and prices are set
• What locational marginal pricing is and how it worksTransmission scheduling methods and pricing
• The current state of deregulation in the U.S. and Canada

Electricity Marketplace Overview

• Traditional market participants and their roles (IOUs, provincial utilities, munis and PUDs, co-ops, federal power agencies, ESCOs, and electric marketers)
• Competitive market participants ant their roles (merchant generators, ISOs and RTOs, wholesale marketers and retail marketers, financial services companies, transmission companies, UDCs, load serving entities, and ESCOs)
• How participants make money (regulated vs. competitive)
• Wholesale transactions and services (energy, capacity, transmission rights, financial risk management)
• Retail transactions and services (energy, energy efficiency, DSM, power reliability, power quality, energy information)
• How prices are set in regulated markets
• How prices are set in competitive markets
• Supply and demand and why traditional economic rules don't always apply to the electric business
• Why electric prices can be volatile
• Electric market risks and how they can be mitigated

Future

• The future of Regulation, Technology, Markets, and the Workplace
• The energy company of tomorrow

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• A 45-day single user subscription (15 days for short courses) to the course: view the course material as many times and in any order you like during the subscription period.
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• Professional audio and animated content developed by experienced education professionals: this is not a page turner!
• Online exercises and interactions: designed to cement your understanding.
• Reference materials: a list of acronyms and a glossary that you can view online with your course.
• Expert instruction: this course was developed by professionals with decades of energy experience in the industry.
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