At RPB Energy Economics, we bring our clients in-depth knowledge, rigorous analytical skills, and experience in power operations, transmission and distribution networks, economics, finance, market rules and regulations across North America and Asia. We offer fresh-thinking, practical, clear, innovative, and sustainable solutions for sound economic outcomes. Our services span from litigation and regulatory filings to advisory. We see our role as not simply conducting analyses, but also creating a collaborative process to allow our clients to prevail in the long-run.
There is no doubt that the electricity industry is in a midst of a profound change towards cleaner and more distributed energy resources. Technologies, such as digital grids, renewables, electric storage, Internet of Things (IoT), and smart thermostats play a major role in allowing customers to influence how and which type of power they consume. Utilities, system operators, policymakers, and regulators must be agile to adapt to this fast-changing environment and to ensure a safe, reliable, resilient, and cost-effective service.
How RPB Energy Economics Can Help
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Assessment of Alternative Energy Resources & Implications
We advise generation owners, utilities, system operators, investors, regulators, and policymakers on the implications of adopting these alternative clean energy technologies in wholesale markets and to utilities.
The electric systems around the world are moving towards clean energy resources and digital technologies. This creates both opportunities and challenges to market participants and system operators. Existing regulations and market rules are not readily-equipped to recognize these clean energy resources, and thus could become market barriers—preventing these resources from reaping their full potential. In other circumstances, their fast growth could have a reliability impact. System operators need to create new flexible services to integrate variable output of renewables to existing systems.
We advise generation owners, utilities, system operators, investors, regulators, and policymakers on the implications of adopting these alternative clean energy technologies in wholesale markets and utilities. We also assess the impacts of policies and regulatory frameworks on alternative energy resources and provide suitable recommendations with an independent advisory view. We draw on our knowledge, experience, and analytical skills of alternative clean energy technologies, system operations, markets and regulation to clearly address the challenges and opportunities facing our clients during this dynamic and complex transformation.
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Litigation & Regulatory Matters
We provide litigation support, consulting services, and expert testimony in areas related to electricity and energy economics. We focus on economic issues specific to each case and identify potential experts, both internally and from our network of outside experts and leading academics, who are best suited to address clients’ cases.
Selected Experience
- Provided an extensive discovery effort and in-depth analyses of market data and other evidence to counsels in various litigation cases.
- Estimated refunds involving the Energy Crisis of 2000-2001. Our economist testified and provided litigation support to California utilities, the California Attorney General, and the California Public Utilities Commission that led to settlements between suppliers and California buyers.
- Prepared energy and capacity price forecasts for Zone J (New York City) of the NYISO market for use in an assessment of ability to build and finance a power plant. The case involved a breach of a land purchase contract case in a bankruptcy court.
- Provided support to an expert in an international arbitration case involving the treatment of regulatory policies and process on self-generation and its economic efficiency.
Market Design
RPB Energy Economics advises utilities and policymakers on the design and improvements to electricity markets.
We assist clients with their market design choices and address more complex design issues arising from growing renewables, on-site generation, and two-way platforms. Moreover, to ensure a workably competitive market one of centralized wholesale power market design elements is a market monitoring and mitigation protocol (MMP). A well-designed MMP for energy, ancillary services or capacity markets should not over-interfere with price-setting mechanisms such that they suppress prices and discourage long-term investment. We combine our extensive experience and knowledge in the electricity markets, competition economics and game theory to provide innovative market-based approaches that strike a balance between using market-based mechanisms and imposing regulations to meet policy objectives.
Selected Experience
Designing and preparing a roadmap and implementation plan for Thailand’s electricity market reform, starting with a pilot program for small power producers. The design incorporates the key tenets of sound market design, synthesizes lessons learned from international experiences, and tailors them to Thailand’s unique electricity industry structure and policy objectives.
Advised the Alberta Electric System Operator in analyzing its options of market power screens and mitigation measures, as the market is expected to change from the energy-only structure to both energy and capacity markets.
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Market Intelligence for Disruptive Technologies
RPB Energy Economics provides market intelligence services for disruptive technologies (such as electric storage and distributed energy resources). Our research provides a high-level view by focusing on market fundamentals and on-going state and federal regulatory policies specific to these technologies. We can provide valuable insights to shape the direction of our clients’ business strategies.
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Market Power and Market Manipulation Analyses
Our expert has extensive experience and knowledge in identifying and measuring the impacts of market power and market manipulation in electricity markets. Our expert has conducted analyses and submitted testimony on potential market power and market manipulation allegations. Moreover, she has co-authored Market Power and Market Manipulation in Energy Markets from the California Crisis to the Present.
Selected Experience
Assessed whether suppliers engaged in market manipulation or exercised market power. The following were examined to understand sellers’ ability and incentives, market rules, market timelines, and suppliers’ bidding behaviors in various wholesale spot and forward power markets.
Merger & Acquisition and Market-Based Rate Analyses
RPB Energy Economics advises applicants, sellers and firms interested in mergers and acquisitions in the electricity and gas sectors.
We have worked on behalf of applicants to prepare the DPT and alternative analyses to satisfy the FERC’s requirement. We have also worked for opponents to determine whether applicants’ analyses satisfy the FERC’s Delivered Price Test (DPT). Our expert has submitted testimony and analyses before the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and state regulators.
Our in-house expert uses a variety of economic analyses, including the FERC’s DPT, supply curve analysis, and customized market simulation models to analyze a proposed merger’s effect on the market participant’s ability and incentive to exercise market power. We have also analyzed both horizontal and vertical transactions. Our knowledge and experience in energy regulation and competition economics, combined with our use of simulation models, particularly the DPT, and statistical techniques, allows us to provide reliable qualitative and quantitative assessments of the likely competitive impact of mergers and acquisitions. This would aid clients in identifying whether a mitigation measure is needed.
Additionally, our expert at RPB Energy Economics provides testimony and economic analyses involving sellers’ requests before the FERC for authority to sell at market-based rates (MBR) in the wholesale electricity markets.
Selected Experience
Assisted buyers of electric power plants in preparing competitive analyses and testimony before the FERC. Using the DPT, we modeled the detail transmission network in the Western region to assess whether the transactions have any adverse impacts on competition.
Provided analyses and reports in support of several horizontal and vertical mergers. For a vertical transaction, the analysis examined whether a combined entity could have incentive to raise rivals’ input costs that would ultimately result in rival’s foreclosure.
Conducted analyses and testimony in support of an MBR applicant’s request for market-based rate authority for power sales in the CAISO’s Energy Imbalance Market (EIM).
Conducted the FERC’s indicative screen analyses and prepared affidavits for utilities and generators demonstrating that sellers do not possess market power and should be granted MBR authority.
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