Executive Education Course

March 5, 2007
Milton Marks Conference Center
San Diego Room (downstairs)
455 Golden Gate Avenue
San Francisco, California 94102

Course Description:

This one-day course builds on the concepts taught in CSEM’s “Economic Fundamentals of Electricity Regulation and Markets” course. Energy professionals with some economics training and who are interested in understanding the mechanisms and dynamics of hedging, real-time pricing implementation issues, and capacity markets and resource adequacy should attend. There will be four 90-minute sessions and a break for lunch. All sessions are interactive and student participation is encouraged. The four sessions are:

Session 1: Risk and Hedging

9:00am – 10:30am

Basic principles

Natural Gas

Hedging Products

Hedging and Regulation

Session 2: Dynamic Pricing Implementation Issues

10:45am – 12:15pm

Hedging dynamic prices

Pricing mechanisms

Implementation issues

Lunch Break

12:15pm – 1:30pm

Session 3: Capacity Markets and Resource Adequacy

1:30pm – 3:00pm

General Principals

Implementation Issues

Performance Requirements and Penalties

Revenue Targets and Demand Curves

Session 4: Capacity Market Implementation and Examples

3:15pm – 4:45pm

Examples of US capacity markets

Examples of alternative approaches

Instructors’ Profiles:

Severin Borenstein is Co-Director of CSEM, a Professor of Business Economics at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, and Director of the University of California Energy Institute. Professor Borenstein holds a Ph.D. in economics from MIT. His research focuses on business competition and government regulation. He is the author of many articles on competition in electricity markets and on the gasoline and oil markets. Professor Borenstein also has done extensive research on the airline industry. He has advised many state and federal agencies and state and foreign governments on energy and airline matters. He is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Professor Borenstein previously served as a member of the Board of Governors of the California Power Exchange.

James Bushnell is Co-Director of CSEM, Research Director of the University of California Energy Institute and a Lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Dr. Bushnell holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from UC Berkeley. His research focuses on many aspects of operations, regulation and competition in the electricity industry. He is the author of many articles covering such topics as auction design, transmission planning and investment, market power, and energy demand. Dr. Bushnell serves on the California’s Independent System Operator’s Market Surveillance Committee and has served on the Market Monitoring Committee of the California Power Exchange.