Energy Production and Risk Management in a Competitive Environment

Dr. Fred Lee, University of Oklahoma, EEC-9980235

As the electric utility industry moves from a regulated to an unregulated environment, we don't want to be forced to choose between inexpensive and reliable service. To make the right choices, engineers must be trained to make distribution decisions based upon an understanding of market economics. Electrical Energy Production and Risk Management is a new, MS-level, curriculum integrating recent advances in power system planning and resource scheduling with the use of options and commodity futures contracts to manage risk.

Dr. Lee, of the University of Oklahoma, introduces the concept of portfolio optimization in this web-based lecture.

The program incorporates teaching modules for two new courses and an educational version of a successful commercial simulator, GenTrader, that is used in the scheduling of and forecasting the need for power generation capacity. The new teaching modules and the educational version of the simulator are available, free, to all educational institutions through the World Wide Web.