Industry
Electric Industry Fundamentals
Get a "big picture" overview of the electric industry - from both a physical and business perspective
In this interactive two and one-half-day seminar you will gain a comprehensive understanding of the physical electric system, the business of electricity, and how you and your company fit into the big picture from both a physical and business perspective. If you are new to the electric business, or even a veteran who isn't quite sure how all the pieces fit together, Electric Industry Fundamentals is designed to help you connect the dots to make sense out of this complex and rapidly changing industry.
You will learn about various types of customers and how their needs are served, the basic laws of electricity and industry jargon, details on the physical system from generation through customer meter, why and how the industry is regulated and what electric deregulation changes, what types of risk energy companies encounter and how they mitigate them, how electric markets work and prices are set, and much more.
This course was designed with your participation in mind! Questions and discussion among attendees are highly encouraged. And you will participate in a number of individual and group exercises that will give you a real-world perspective of the business of electricity. You will leave this information-packed
Prerequisites: No prerequisites or advance preparation is required.
Contact us at 866-765-5432 or 'info' for more information.
No dates are currently scheduled for this seminar. Please Contact Us for more information.
Is Electric Industry Fundamentals the right seminar for me?
If a big picture perspective of the electric business combined with a solid overview of how the electric system functions from a technical perspective could help you succeed in your job, this seminar is for you! Whether you are new to the electric business or you’re an industry veteran, you will benefit from this comprehensive business overview coupled with an understandable explanation of complex technical concepts. While anyone with a connection to the electric power business should consider this fundamental seminar, here are the types of employees who have found this class especially helpful to their continued success in the industry:
- New hires: anyone new to the industry, whether you are working for a utility, energy marketing company, renewable generation firm, startup, or any company providing services to the industry
- Employees with industry experience in one or two departments who are moving into management
- Regulatory employees who need to understand the real-world challenges of electric market participants
- Accounting professionals who need a solid foundation in business and technical principles
- Professionals such as attorneys, finance, PR, communications, etc. who are working for an industry participant or providing services to the energy industry
- Virtually any industry employee with limited electric experience
How will Electric Industry Fundamentals help me?
If you are new to the electric business, this seminar will help you gain a big picture perspective of the industry you’ve just joined. From both a business and a technical perspective, the electric industry is unlike any other industry you may have experienced in the past. The business acumen and understanding of complex technical principles you will receive in this class will help you to make sense of it all. And that broad foundation of knowledge will help you to become a more active and productive participant of your company’s team. Many participants tell us that what they learned in two and one-half days could have taken years in on-the-job training! Think of this class as a big jump-start to your career in the electricity business.
If you are an industry veteran, you probably know that it’s common for employees to gain expertise in their area of work (accounting is a great example), yet after years on the job have very little idea how what they do affects the company as a whole. Or they keep doing their job without a clear understanding of how the physical system impacts their area of responsibility. This seminar is designed to not only provide the big picture perspective you are missing, but also to help you understand how what you do affects the rest of the business and how the rest of the business affects you. Whether it’s getting a grip on industry acronyms or finally understanding how an electric utility makes money, this knowledge will make you more comfortable communicating with others in your company and prepare you for further career advancement.
In just two and one-half information-packed days, this dynamic course will provide you with a solid understanding of:
- A big picture perspective of how the electric business operates
- The various types of electric customers, how they use power, their specific needs, and how services are designed to meet them
- Electric industry jargon and basic electrical principles
- Generation types and sources and their advantages and disadvantages
- How the transmission and distribution systems are designed and operated to deliver electricity reliably
- The purpose, function and components of the transmission system
- The purpose, function and components of the distribution system
- How service connections are provided to customer facilities
- How electricity is delivered into and metered at the consumer’s facility
- How electricity is generated and travels through the transmission and distribution systems to a customer site
- How system operators decide what types of generation to schedule and when, and how they make sure the system operates reliably
- Which segments of the industry are regulated and why, and how the regulatory process really works
- How a utility's rates are determined and how the rate case process affects the profitability of utilities, their customers and other market participants
- The various types of market structures and how they differ
- How electricity deregulation has changed the business and how competitive markets continue to evolve
- Who the key industry participants are and the strategies they employ to be successful
- How physical and financial strategies are used to make money and manage risk
- The key forces likely to drive future evolution in the electric business
Introduction
- What is electricity and how does it work?
- Why is electricity so important to our society?
- Electric units and additional concepts that you need to know
Electric End Users
- The 3 key customer classes and how each uses electricity
- Daily and annual load shapes and why this is so important to understand
- How customer demand is forecast in the short term and long term
- Customer needs and wants
- Services available to end-use customers including distribution, supply and after-the-meter services
- Typical rate options for customers in a regulated market
- How customers buy electricity in competitive markets
Electrical Definitions
- Direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC)
- Electricity, volts, amps, watts, kilowatts, kilowatt-hours, kilovolt-amperes
- Conductors and insulators
- Voltage (volts), resistance (amps)
- Real power, apparent power, reactive power
- Basic electrical relationships (Ohms Law, Watts Law)
- Circuits (functions and types)
- Power factor
- Integrated resource planning
Generating Electricity
- Single vs. three phase
- Types and sources of generation
- U.S. capacity and output by fuel source
- Generation characteristics
- Advantages/disadvantages/costs of each generation type
- Environmental considerations when scheduling generation
- Demand side management (DSM)
- How units are dispatched
The Transmission System
- Purpose and function
- Components (substations, transformers, switchyard, transmission lines)
- Interconnections
- North American electrical grids
- NERC regions, RTOs, ISOs, TRANSCOs
Operating an Electrical System
- Power control
- Power system characteristics
- System operators and control areas
- How loads are forecasted and then scheduled on a daily basis
- Economic vs. environmental dispatch
- Ancillary services
- How transmission is scheduled and congestion managed
- Types of electric markets
- Sources of energy, capacity and ancillary services
- How marginal units vary by time of day
- An explanation of locational marginal pricing
- Financial transmission rights (FTRs)
- The blackout of 2003
The Distribution System
- Purpose and function
- Components (substations, distribution lines, lighting arrestors, voltage regulators, fuses, reclosers, capacitor banks)
- Distribution circuits (types and voltages)
- Lines (wye vs. delta, overhead vs. underground)
- Primary vs. secondary distribution
- Services (overhead and underground, single phase and three phase, voltage)
- Components (service transformer, service drop, meter loop, meter, main disconnect, service/breaker panel, branch circuits)
- Circuits
Meters and Metering
- Types of meters (induction, solid state, hybrid)
- Current transformers (CTs) and potential transformers (PTs)
- Location of meters
- Registers
- Smart meters and automatic meter reading (AMR)
The Delivery Chain
- Regulated and deregulated market structures
- Key market participants (generation, transmission, trading, distribution and retail)
- Electric transactions in vertically-integrated utility and competitive markets
Regulation and Deregulation
- What does regulation do? Why is it so important in the electric industry?
- Who the regulators are, and who regulates what
- 4 types of regulatory proceedings
- The 8 steps in the regulatory process and what happens during each step
- How cost-of-service based rates are set: authorized rates of return, determining the rate base, determining the revenue requirement, forecasting usage, determining cost allocations, calculating rates
- What is incentive regulation and why would some energy companies and even regulators prefer this to more traditional forms of regulation?
- When are market based rates used?
Market Restructuring
- The concept of deregulation/restructuring and how it requires unbundling of vertically-integrated utilities
- 6 reasons to restructure an electric market
- In which areas of the electric industry does it make sense to allow competition?
- 4 electric market structures that exist in the U.S. today and the advantages/disadvantages of each
- Trading arrangements – how power is bought and sold under different wholesale market structures including wheeling and ISO/RTO markets
- Electric supply choice in the U.S. today - which states have it and which do not? How is this changing?
- A look at the ideal outcome of deregulation, and then a look at what has really happened to date
Industry Evolution
- The historical utility structure
- Business models for the current decade
- Trends in generation - what will get built and who will build it?
- Reserve margins throughout the U.S. and what this means for our future generation needs
- How renewable energy programs are changing what is built where, and how future regulation of carbon could change this picture
- What strategies are generation owners using?
- Trends in transmission - where are expansions proposed and who will build them??
- Transmission owner strategies
- Trends in wholesale trading - who's in the market and who has left and what are successful strategies? Will this change?
- Trends in distribution and retail marketing - who are the retail marketers to watch and what are their strategies?
Making Money and Managing Risk
- How market participants make money and how this differs for regulated and unregulated companies
- 7 risk factors in the electric business and what a company can do to manage its exposure
- Why are electric prices so volatile and how can they be hedged?
- The physical and financial tools used in electric risk management and who provides them
- Using Value at Risk to measure risk and the need for additional stress testing
The Future of the Electric Industry
- What you might expect in regulation, technology and markets
- The smart grid and smart house
- The new workforce
“Wonderful course! It covered all my questions in an easy to understand and interesting manner.”
“Great explanations of course content to supplement slide content. Liked the real-world examples. Good balance of technical and economic theory in the industry.”
“Very useful information, clearly presented.”
“Very informative and well-structured layout.”
Group discount
Attend this seminar with your workgroup and you can save up to 25%. For every three people from the same company who attend this course, the fourth is free!
Networking reception
In addition to all you will learn, this seminar is also a great networking opportunity. We offer a hosted reception the first night of your course, which gives you the opportunity to continue networking with colleagues in a casual and comfortable environment. This is a great opportunity to develop valuable new relationships with peers in other companies and agencies.
Course length
Two and one-half days.
Prerequisites
No prerequisites or advance preparation is required.
Seminar times
This seminar begins and 8:30 each day, and ends at 5:00 the first two days and noon the third day. But feel free to come early to enjoy complimentary breakfast, ask questions of your instructor and network with other class participants.
Registration fee
$1,990 (save $200 - only $1,790 if paid three weeks prior to seminar). This fee includes continental breakfast, lunch and morning and afternoon breaks. The fee also includes course materials and a networking reception the first night.
Cancellation policy
All class sizes are limited and your place in class is held exclusively for you. Registrations cancelled two weeks or more prior to the seminar date will receive a full refund minus a 10% administrative fee or a credit for 100% of the registration fee good towards any other Enerdynamics product. Registrations cancelled with less than two weeks notice but more than two days notice will receive a credit for 100% of the registration fee good towards any other Enerdynamics product. Registrations cancelled with less than two days notice are not eligible for refund or credit. Substitutions may be made at any time and without additional cost.
Contact us at 866-765-5432 or 'info' for more information.
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CPE credits? Absolutely!
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Bring this seminar onsite
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No risk to you!
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