Feature
Watching the home front
The growing international controversy about Iran’s nuclear ambitions as well as internal unrest may stall foreign investment in the country’s energy sector in a way that US sanctions have failed to do. Maria Kielmas reports
Taiwan’s growing risk appetite
Relying on imports for most of its energy requirements and constrained by the government’s view that risk management is gambling, how can Taiwan tackle the challenge of price risk in its growing energy sector? By David Hayes
A hard Act to follow
The final piece of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act – section 404 – falls into place this month, requiring internal control reports. While the Act may go some way to restoring investor confidence, it is costing energy companies dear, finds Kevin Foster
System-ready for Sarbanes-Oxley
Energy companies are not alone in having to review their operations to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Energy software suppliers, too, are looking at their systems, although most are confident they are already well prepared, finds Clive Davidson
Deregulation versus re-regulation
While the US authorities are still ironing kinks out of a major electricity market redesign and looking to repeal the utility industry’s most influential Act, US regulators and self regulators are moving to fill the vacuum. Catherine Lacoursière reports
A true test for value-at-risk
The three classic approaches for measuring portfolio value-at-risk do not compare like with like, argues Richard Sage. Here he presents a test portfolio to highlight the differences between calculation methods
All talk, no action
Cancelled power plant auctions and the complexities of asset debt structures are bad news for the boutiques set up to acquire power assets. The boutiques talk a good business plan – but execution may prove troublesome, as Paul Lyon discovers
Warming to the exchanges
Weather derivatives may not be the most widely traded product on exchanges, but new initiatives and strong trading volume at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange bode well for the development of a mature exchange-traded market. Paul Lyon reports
Joining up the markets
The Amsterdam Power Exchange has recently developed a market-coupling system. This spot market system supports international trading – linking two independent markets based on area-based elasticity curves, it also allows flexible block orders
Gas hubs jockey for position
The Bunde-Oude natural gas hub on the German-Dutch border is the most likely candidate to become the Henry Hub of Europe, according to a survey of European natural gas experts conducted by Maycroft Consultancy Services
The derivatives burden
Former International Petroleum Exchange official Chris Cook looks at the issues raised at a debate on the future of the European energy markets at the end of London’s Derivatives Week event. The regulatory burden on firms took centre stage
How to be top of the class
Brett Humphreys discusses the attributes that combine to create a best-in-class market risk management division within an energy company
The search for spot
Strong demand for US liquefied natural gas is accelerating the development of an active global spot market and pricing benchmarks, as Catherine Lacoursière discovers
A capital adequacy primer
A summary of the Committee of Chief Risk Officers’ (CCRO) emerging guidelines on capital adequacy, by Cinergy’s Antonio Ligeralde, Kenneth Robinson of El Paso Merchant Energy and CCRO head Michael Smith
Austrian rail firm on the risk management fast track
Austria’s largest electricity consumer, rail firm Österreichische Bundesbahnen, talks to EPRM about its energy risk management strategy. And, as Paul Lyon discovers, other end-users could learn from the innovative company
In search of power solutions
Blackouts across Italy in early July highlight the need for power plant investment – and the new market operator says promotion of derivatives trading is necessary to encourage such investment. But producers are yet to bite, finds James Ockenden
US coal trading picks up steam
While the coal market awaits pricing indexes to reinvigorate trading, emissions trading is getting a boost from increased coal burning. Catherine Lacoursière reports
Emerging adequacy
The Committee of Chief Risk Officers’ capital adequacy ‘emerging practice’ guidelines will, says the capital adequacy committee chair, evolve into a new regulatory body within a year. James Ockenden reports
The trouble with normalisation
Weather derivatives practitioners say normalisation agreements between regulators and utilities in the US are posing a threat to their industry. Kevin Foster investigates
A secure base
Long praised as pioneers in the energy derivatives space, US energy firms are now looking to make their overall risk management practices more robust. And, as Paul Lyon discovers, these companies have several innovations up their sleeves, such as…
Ferc’s California clean-up
Sixty energy firms and utilities will have to justify their activities during the California energy crisis, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Ferc) said in its regular bi-weekly meeting on June 25.
Ferc executes already dead Enron
Enron became the first company to face the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (Ferc) “death penalty” in June when the US energy regulator revoked the bankrupt firm’s authority to sell electricity at market-based rates.
Keeping up with the markets
The power trading sector has changed substantially in the past 12 months. Have trading and risk management software vendors kept pace? Kevin Foster reports
Avoiding STP failure
Entertaining as a Matrix-style spectre of a world governed by computers might be, for many involved in planning straight-through processing, seamless computing is the goal that every organisation should be trying to achieve, says Trayport’s Elliot Piggot