Business Challenge
Texas’ energy market was a loosely
integrated collection of 10 transmission and generation companies, along
with power marketers that oversaw the wholesale market. The state’s
consumers had no choice of residential electric power provider.
In an effort to give consumers more choice, spur competition, improve
the efficiency of the electricity market and ensure reliable service,
the state mandated deregulation. The Electric Reliability
Council of Texas (ERCOT) was given only 15 months to create a new
wholesale electricity market structure and a new retail market
infrastructure, as well as help develop the processes that would enable
the ERCOT staff to facilitate the competitive market activity.
How Accenture Helped
ERCOT teamed with Accenture to deliver the infrastructure to support
energy deregulation in the tight time frame. ERCOT chose
Accenture because of our global resources, breadth of technology skills,
prior experience in wholesale and retail deregulated electricity markets
and relationships with leading technology players.
An initial assessment showed that work would need to be focused on
creating new solutions in four key areas: grid management, market
operations, commercial operations, and data warehousing. To create the
most innovative and functional solutions in each area, Accenture formed
a consortium of 20 technology providers, drawing from a network of
relationships and alliances with industry leaders.
Datawarehousing: To monitor business processes and improve service,
market players needed access to market data—but there were few existing
databases to provide the data. The Public Utility Commission of Texas
wanted data for oversight; power generators and retailers needed
data to reconcile against operations, distribution companies needed data
to verify service. Drawing heavily from industry experience, the team
designed, built and implemented the first full-function data archive and
warehouse in the wholesale and retail electricity marketplace—and
delivered it in record time. The data archive and warehouse is based on
Oracle, Informatica and Cognos technology to support data collection,
publishing and analysis.
Grid management: Consolidation of the 10 existing ERCOT control areas
into one single, ERCOT-wide control area was necessary to facilitate the
creation of the wholesale market and to enhance the reliable operation
of the bulk power system. To do this, an Accenture-ERCOT led team
implemented a new energy management system using industry-leading
technology. As a result, ERCOT is able to centrally monitor grid
operations, perform network security assessments, and manage system
outages in an integrated manner, resulting in enhanced operation for the
entire grid.
Market operation: In the past, power was bought and sold in a
contract-based wholesale market. Because parties lacked transparent
access to information such as competitive pricing, they could not always
make the most informed contracting decisions. New operating rules were
created for the new competitive market—one that provided true market
prices. The Accenture-led consortium built a system for receiving bids
and schedules from Qualified Scheduling Entities, deploying and
dispatching services, and pricing energy services at market-based rates.
The new markets enable clearing prices to be viewed by all interested
parties. This spurs competition, which results in lower prices at the
wholesale, and ultimately, the retail levels.
Commercial operation: To support the commercial tracking and
reconciliation of market transactions, a new system was developed by
Accenture and ERCOT based on leading-edge technology. The system handles
registration for market participants such as generators, energy traders,
retail companies, transmission and distribution companies, and
municipalities. It also facilitates retail customer switching, meter
data collection and aggregation, billing and payments. For retail
customers in Texas, this meant, for the first time, they could choose
their electric power provider.
Value Delivered
On July 31, 2001, the new wholesale market opened, changing the way
the power grid is managed and providing a new competitive market
infrastructure for wholesale transactions. Subsequently, on January 1,
2002, Texas officially opened the full retail market to competition.
Both events were revolutionary for the state. Texas consumers can now
get electricity at a competitive price and have the freedom to choose
their electricity provider.
Accenture helped ERCOT meet the tight deadline through visionary
ideas, precise execution and strong collaboration with leading industry
players. Today, ERCOT has:
An energy management system that enables a secure, centralized
system.
A market operating system for managing the wholesale market.
A commercial operations system for managing and reconciling wholesale
and retail market transactions.
A data archive and warehouse that allows the Public Utility Committee of
Texas, ERCOT and market participants to access information. They now can
analyze market and internal business operations to help improve overall
market operations and the residential customer’s experience. As a
result, ERCOT can continually monitor and improve electricity services
for eight million Texas customers.
The innovative design and state of the art technology used to support
the ERCOT market have established a new benchmark for deregulated
electricity market infrastructures worldwide.
Accenture
