Models for generating agents in electricity markets

Summary form only given. A competitive and deregulated framework is replacing traditional and centralised regulation. Utilities need new planning and market tools to operate in a new competitive environment. The new relevant factors to be considered for planning agent operation in the market are competitor behaviour and risk management. Factors such as uncertainty in demand, hydro-production, unit failures, etc. require attention as in traditional planning models. The author describes the hierarchy of models and its main characteristics used by a generating company for market competition. It is important to recognise that operation objectives of particular agents do not coincide with those of a centralised operation structure. The agent main objective can be defined as an economic margin maximisation subject to an efficient operation of its generating resources, while the objective of a traditional centralised operation is to minimise cost of the system. Results of both functions may be same only under certain conditions. There is a need for new models and generating agents are already using them in the market place. A reasonable way to classify agents models is according to traditional planning horizons: long, medium and short term. Problems to be solved in each horizon are the same or similar to those solved in traditional planning plus forecast of competitors behaviour and economic risk evaluation. Together with planning models, analysis of results and market dBase becomes essential. Repetitive market auctions is the basis for historic analysis. Competitors behaviour patterns can be identified and used to forecast market scenarios