Market Design & Development

In many countries the electric power sector has been restructured to enable producers, suppliers, and large customers to have open access to the network. One result of this global trend is that cross-border electricity trading has become more competitive and market-oriented. The economic evaluation of new cross-border transmission projects and the implementation of new legal and regulatory requirements require an understanding of economic, technical, and legal aspects of power system interconnection. While sophisticated market designs are being developed for regional markets in Europe, simpler designs are needed to support regional electricity trade in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

One of our strengths with regard to cross-border trade is the design and implementation of markets for transmission rights, and market-based methods of congestion management. We are able to draw upon U.S. experience with ISO and RTO markets for transmission rights, which complements our international experience in power sector transaction support and policy analysis.

The following issues, among others, can play important roles in this area:

• Enabling cross-border flows of energy from intermittent resources, while giving efficient price signals for the use of cross-border transmission capacity
• Allocation of transmission capacity over different time frames: multi-year, year-ahead, month-ahead, day-ahead, intraday, and real time
• Development of a congestion management scheme that allocates capacity to both the day-ahead market and the bilateral contract market

If your organization is involved in project feasibility analysis for cross-border transmission, or in the development of regional electricity markets, contact us to learn how we can help your organization achieve its objectives.