Risk management
Energy firms find succour
US energy company debt has reached critical levels, with nervous investors and banks working hard to keep these companies afloat. But Paul Lyon finds the secretive hedge fund industry could also lend a helping hand
Buying your way out of trouble
UK high-street retailer Littlewoods has saved £1.5 million through an energy risk management and procurement programme. Utilyx’s Nigel Cornwall looks at how other companies can reduce energy costs through purchase programmes
Cross-border conundrums
Analysts at rating agency Standard & Poor’s Lee Munden and Paul Lund look at the future of cross-border trading in Europe, given the credit crises of 2002
Power asset prices plummet
The energy price boom may be over, but bargain hunters beware: the predicted sale of US generation assets is yet to occur. Kevin Foster reports
Own, sell or restructure
UK and US utilities are presently saddled with a lot of debt, thanks to overcapacity and low power prices. But what’s the best way for these firms to deal with the power plants they don’t need? By Jessica McCallin
The case for financially settled contracts
Banks and hedge funds have shied away from trading electricity due to fear and ignorance of the physical nature of the market. But, as Todd Bessemer of Accenture points out, financially settled contracts can avoid the complexity of physical delivery and…
How to spot a VaR cheat
Traders can use weaknesses in VaR measurement to make it appear that they are not taking any risks. Brett Humphreys exposes how easily this can be done
Trading with a small ‘t’
What made headlines before is now becoming everyday news: energy companies are scaling back or leaving energy trading. Some industry observers are emphasising the shift to ‘trading around assets’. Anne Ku investigates just what this means
Optimise this
One of the reactions to recent energy trading difficulties has been a shift away from speculative activities towards portfolio optimisation, but what does the term really mean, ask Tim Essaye and Brett Humphreys
Models of good behaviour
The development of new models that describe the real dynamics of energy prices have to take into account the behavioural aspects of market players. The problem is how to quantify these aspects. Maria Kielmas reports
Greening the markets
Environmental risks are increasingly being recognised as important financial issues, but the markets are still some way from rewarding companies for good environmental performance, as Kevin Foster discovers
Opportunity knocks for smelters
Aluminium manufacturers have long used sophisticated hedging and risk management techniques to protect against fluctuating metal prices, yet they have only recently looked at transferring these skills to power risk management. David Wilson reports
Margin notes
Brett Humphreys explains how to measure and manage margin risk, an often-overlooked – yet often-significant – risk exposure
Ahead of the green game
Given the efforts they have already made to reduce emissions, many German firms do not share their environment minister’s enthusiasm for the EU’s new, obligatory cross-border greenhouse gas emissions trading market. Jessica McCallin reports
Judicial stalemate
German natural gas market liberalisation is stalled between the courts and a corporatist business culture, finds Maria Kielmas
Option pricing for power prices with spikes
European power prices are very volatile and subject to spikes, particularly in German and Dutch markets. Ronald Huisman and Cyriel de Jong examine the impact of spikes on option prices by comparing prices from a standard mean-reverting model and a regime…
Blurring the lines
A turf war between Atlanta’s IntercontinentalExchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange reveals a shift in the traditional role of over-the-counter brokers and exchanges, finds Catherine Lacoursière
Enough’s enough
Brett Humphreys takes the guesswork out of determining how many simulations are needed to calculate value-at-risk
Exchanging blows
Conflict in the US and growth in Europe marked another turbulent year for energy exchanges. Kevin Foster casts an eye back over 2002
Getting stressed
To understand how much value can be lost from a position in the energy markets, we need to use measures other than value-at-risk. Brett Humphreys discusses methods for creating effective stress tests
Standardising electricity contracts
Electricity contracts have come and gone, but a new trio of financially settled futures contracts aims to widen the electricity market, reports James Ockenden
Cell mates
Traders love spreadsheets. But complex deals can quickly outgrow a sheet developed on the fly. Since traders won’t abandon their favourite tools, Stuart Cook and Tony Hughes of The Structure Group look at how firms can control their use
Capturing value from energy supply and trading
Companies that plan to engage in energy trading need to invest in the right personnel, processes and information management tools if they intend to be successful, says David Dunkin, SolArc’s Chief Strategic Executive