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News
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LCG, August 14, 2024 – LCG Consulting (LCG) has released its annual outlook of the ERCOT wholesale electricity market for 2025, highlighting the region's rapid transition toward increased reliance on renewable energy resources and battery storage.
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LCG, August 14, 2024 – LCG Consulting (LCG) has released its annual outlook of the ERCOT wholesale electricity market for 2025, highlighting the region's rapid transition toward increased reliance on renewable energy resources and battery storage.
Read more
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Industry News
Enron's Problems Generate Some Odd News
By Ric Teague
EditorLCG, Dec. 31, 2001--Shortly before Thanksgiving, we were asked "Where will Enron shares be in 10 years?" Our interrogator obviously was thinking of buying a couple thousand shares on the cheap and waiting for a rebound. "Save your money," we said. "There will be no Enron in 10 years."We ignored the possibility of short-term gain, through what we might call the Teddy Roosevelt effect. The walls of Theodore Roosevelt's home at Sagamore Hill were adorned with the heads of wild animals he had slain on his many hunting excursions throughout the world.While the former president personally shot his trophies, many "sportsmen" are not so scrupulous. That moose head on your lawyer's wall may have been purchased at a garage sale.There is now, it develops, a rising interest in Enron stock certificates, which can be framed and hung on a wall just like any dead duck. From the time Enron Corp. adopted its present name in 1985 until early this year, its shares were regarded by investors as a "growth stock," and there must be hundreds of thousands -- maybe millions -- of round lot (100-share) certificates in safe deposit boxes.While more than 9 million shares of Enron had changed hands for a little more than 50 cents on the New York Stock Exchange by 11:30 a.m. today, the physical stock certificate was selling for a lot more.Enron's stock certificates are handsome pieces of paper -- lots of blue and white filigree, with an etching of a muscular oil field worker in a hard hat sitting in the foreground of what appears to be a working gas field. Each certificate bears the printed signature of chief executive Kenneth Lay.If you own one of those round lot certificates, you can get about $57.50 for it on the stock exchange, minus commission and fees. If you know someone who has framed Russian railroad bonds on his wall, you can get twice that.Enron certificates are being sold on auction Websites for as much as $100 to "scripophiles," as lovers of old, worthless documents call themselves.How Many Off-Balance-Sheet Partnerships Were There?The January 7 issue of Forbes was in our mailbox Saturday and in a major article the magazine said it has some leaked "internal documents" that show that as early as March of this year the elaborate network of external partnerships the company used to hedge against the declining value of assets was beginning to unravel.Forbes says that even as then-chief executive Jeffery Skilling and Lay were selling millions of dollars worth of Enron shares, "an army of lawyers and accountants was shuttling money among partnerships to forestall disaster."Only Enron knows how many such partnerships exist," the magazine says, and cites a Houston analyst who has counted more than 3,000 subsidiaries and partnerships, many of them off-balance-sheet entities. "Some deals require a complete suspension of disbelief," Forbes says.So far, many of the principals have been pleading ignorance, including Enron's long-time auditors, the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen. Forbes quoted Washington lawyer Jacob Frenkel as saying "If you intentionally choose to be ignorant, that can satisfy the question of criminal intent."Blaming the Other GuyYesterday, Reuters news agency suggested "a subtle blame game may be developing between two former executives most widely suspected of playing key roles in Enron Corp.'s collapse, as each seeks to avoid possible civil and criminal charges from a host of investigations.Reuters was talking about Skilling and former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, neither of whom has as yet been charged with any crime or formally accused of any wrongdoing.Neither wants to be, and in "carefully controlled media appearances," accompanied by high-priced lawyers, each has distanced himself from blame, suggesting others were responsible.This, according to Reuters, could be the beginning of finger-pointing, in an attempt to shift the focus of investigators to the other guy.A Houston lawyer told the news agency "I would not predict indictments now, but you can bet there will be federal criminal grand juries."
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UPLAN-NPM
The Locational Marginal Price Model (LMP) Network Power Model
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UPLAN-ACE
Day Ahead and Real Time Market Simulation
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UPLAN-G
The Gas Procurement and Competitive Analysis System
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PLATO
Database of Plants, Loads, Assets, Transmission...
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