On May 2 thru 4th 2016, Ascend Analytics held its Portfolio Management, Best Practices and User Summit on the PowerSimm software suite. More than 40 attendees spent this time in beautiful Boulder, Colorado sharing best practices, experiences and knowledge on how they have used PowerSimm to add value via meaningful uncertainty to their utility and municipal operations, portfolio management and planning decisions. The presenters and panel discussion members included the following:
- Ascend Analytics – Gary Dorris, CEO – Hedge Strategies and Applications Workshop. In this session Gary covered key distinctive attributes of PowerSimm with regard to hedging strategies.
- TVA- Eric Hummel, Risk Manager – Mastering Uncertainty as a Tool for Better Decision Analysis. Eric shared 3 examples of how PowerSimm is adding value to TVA in PPA’s, Commodity Contracting and Portfolio Risk Reporting.
- AEP – John Kinateder, Director, Market Risk Analytics- Ensuring Hedge Optimization. John’s many years of experience helped the crowd better understand how to use PowerSimm to evaluate different hedge strategies.
- Duke Energy – Pedram Mohseni, Lead Qualitative Analyst, Fuels & Systems Optimization – Adopting Solar in an Uncertain Regulatory Environment. Pedram shared about how Duke Energy is considering risk with regard to solar integration.
- Ascend Analytics – Sean Burrows, CTO– Data Reporting, Visualization and Management Metrics. Sean showed users some of the improvements and updates that have been made and are coming to PowerSimm and the User Interface(U/I).
- AES – Viktor Stafiychuk, Risk Manager – Global Portfolio Management, Case Study. Viktor presented the AES global portfolio and a pilot study on the application of simulation to analyze illiquid markets.
- Dayton Power & Light (DP&L) – Scott Wrigglesworth, Associate Director, Commercial Portfolio Analytics – Optimizing Short Term Operations Decisions. In this session, Scott demonstrated how DP&L has used PowerSimm to maximize revenue via trading, hedging and risk mitigation.
- Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) – Herve Touati, Managing Director – Utility Investment Planning under Variable Renewable Energy Sources. Herve shared RMI’s global view of renewable expansion and valuation.
- Ernst & Young – Thomas Lord, Executive Director, Commodity Markets – Fuel Commodity Management Under Volatile Supply Conditions. Thomas spoke candidly on the good, the bad and the ugly of commodity hedging.
- Riverside Public Utilities (RPU) – Scott Lesch, Resource Manager – Use of Ascend Reports for Resource Planning & Energy Risk Management. Scott took some time to share how RPU is using PowerSimm to share information internally and externally and to make informed decisions.
- RES Americas – Patrick Leslie, Energy Storage Manager – RES Energy Storage Solutions. In this presentation, Patrick shared details on RES’s twelve energy storage projects across the USA and some study cases on storage project valuation.
- American Power Net – Bruce Sher, VP National Accounts – Innovations in Predictive Analysis. Bruce shared some insights on energy storage deployment methodologies and rationalization.
The event culminated with a training session for all users and levels of expertise. The summit was a great professional experience for PowerSimm users who came away with an improved knowledge of how to add value to their business via PowerSimm. We at Ascend really appreciated the chance to meet many of our users in discussion sessions, presentations, the training day and after hour events. We look forward to next year’s event, and to staying in touch to help meet your analytical business needs with PowerSimm.
If you would like more information on this or future events, please fill out a contact request form on Ascend’s website specifying the information you are seeking. If you would like a copy of a specific presentation listed above, please contact Beau Demmler at bdemmler@ascendanalytics.com.
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