Operational risk
FAS 133: increasing transparency
Standard & Poor’s Jack Kennedy and Neri Bukspan believe new Financial Accounting Standards Board rules for US energy traders will make it easier to measure a firm’s risk management ability, liquidity position and equity capital
LNG: handling flexibility risk
Even though the euphoria about the global liquefied natural gas market has dissipated, experts still forecast significant long-term growth. But in a buyer’s market the supplier has to understand the new risks. Maria Kielmas reports
Getting protected
Insurance premiums may have rocketed for power companies over the past year but new ‘dual-trigger’ insurance products could still be an efficient way of transferring price risk. James Ockenden reports
Fighting oil volatility
Oil cartel Opec froze its production output level at its last meeting in September. With war in Iraq on the cards, Shifa Rahman reports on the future of oil volatility
Tripping around credit quality
Jack Kennedy of Standard & Poor’s looks at the effect of round-trip trades on a firm’s credit quality and how they should be treated
Build in or buy out?
Is it more cost-effective for companies to buy available systems from vendors or to develop and deploy their own energy trading and risk management solutions? Bob Bridger of Vedaris looks into the dilemma faced by many companies
Doing the maths: physical value-at-risk
ABB’s William Rutz and Bob Fesmire investigate new tools that calculate physical value-at-risk based on simulations of generating resources and power transactions
A joint state-space model for spot and futures power
Portfolio-wide risk management requires a model that accounts correctly for correlations between the spot asset and various futures products. Kjetil Kåresen and Egil Husby discuss a joint multi-factor model for power spot and futures prices and show how…
The three-way knock-on effect
Peter Nance and Lin Franks look at the interplay between market, credit, and operational risks and consider how firms might approach implementing an integrated company-wide system to tackle them
Estimating oil price volatility: a Garch model
Nikolai Sidorenko, Michael Baron and Michael Rosenberg present a general framework for modelling energy price volatility. These models explain the volatility persistence and clustering present in many commodity prices. In addition, they can incorporate…
Managing risk under SMD
Scott Greene, Mark Niehaus and Pankaj Sahay examine the impact of Ferc’s proposed standard market design on power risk management
Balancing the books
Regulators are taking advantage of a lull in power project development in the US to close loopholes in financing rules, reports Catherine Lacoursière
Out of the zone: nodal pricing takes hold
Congestion-constrained US electricity markets are likely to find relief with the arrival of a new pricing regime, reports Catherine Lacoursière
Clear in present danger
Energy companies are crying out for clearing solutions to reduce their counterparty credit risk. James Ockenden looks at new initiatives from London-based power exchange UKPX and German firm Clearing Bank Hannover
The rise of the money men
Wanted: company to trade power in the US. Strong credit, trading expertise and appetite for risk required. Only banks need apply? By Kevin Foster
After the swashbucklers
Oil exploration today is about taking as few risks as possible, meaning the smaller independent firms are losing out to the energy majors, as Maria Kielmas discovers
The price of good information
The accounting scandals across the US – particularly at Enron – have led to demands for more independent market data in the energy sector. Who’s providing it, and is it meeting the industry’s needs? Kevin Foster reports
Keeping an eye on the long-term
Brett Humphreys discusses the problems with standard credit risk limits and proposes limits that may work better
Var too far
The energy industry has shown tremendous commitment to value-at-risk (Var) methodologies. But use of Var has been misguided, as James Ockenden discovers
Online trading moves forward
Online energy trading seems to have a bright future, despite the two biggest players – Dynegy Direct and EnronOnline – leaving the market, finds Catherine Lacoursière