Information for Austin Energy
The following are examples of industry reports showing fuel volumes, fuel prices by contract counterparty, and detailed generation data, all of which are considered confidential by the Austin “Competitive Matters” Resolution.
Natural gas purchases (FERC Form 552) for Austin Energy summarizes the volumes (TBtu) of natural gas transactions (purchases & sales), with break outs for fixed and indexed prices, and next-day or future delivery.
Monthly natural gas (FERC Form 423) for Austin Energy identifies on a power plant specific basis (e.g. Sandhill, Decker, Holly) the quantity, BTU content, and price (cents per million BTU) by source (Kinder Morgan, Enterprise Texas Pipeline, etc) for all fossil fuel purchases. Austin Energy appears to have submitted these monthly reports about 45 days after the end of each month.
Detailed load and generation for every 15 minute period for Austin Energy is available through ERCOT data requests, as are various other kinds of detailed market information.
Information available for other major Public Utilities in Texas
City Public Service (CPS), San Antonio’s municipal electric utility. Find the 2008 CPS Annual Report here.
Pedernales Electric Coop (PEC), serving multiple counties west of Austin, but headquartered in Johnson City. Find the 2008 PEC Annual Report here.
Information for Private Regulated Utilities in Texas (Non-ERCOT)
The minimum level of information disclosure for most electric utilities in the U.S. is what is provided in the FERC Form 1, which typically contains between 250-300 pages of detailed financial, power plant, purchase power, wholesale power sales, and fuel information on an individual utility, whether located in a competitive market or not. (These items tend to be regarded as confidential in Austin.)
Southwestern Public Service Company (SPS) headquartered in Amarillo, Texas and serving the multi-state “Panhandle” region.
Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO), headquartered in Shreveport, LA and serving portions of East Texas.
Entergy Texas serves east Texas areas including Beaumont.
El Paso Electric (EPE) serves areas in and adjacent to El Paso in Texas and New Mexico. EPE is electrically part of the WECC (Western grid)
Information for Private Regulated Utilities in Competitive Markets (Non-Texas)
Regulated utilities operating inside competitive, bid-based wholesale markets provide very significant levels of public information. This is true even in the PJM (Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland) grid, which already operates on a nodal market that settles prices every 5 minutes. Example of two PJM utilities (with links to FERC Form 1) are provided.
PECO Energy Company (aka Philadelphia Electric Company), headquartered in Philadelphia, PA serves 1.6 million customers, and is a subsidiary of Excelon, one of the nation’s largest utilities.
Delmarva Power serves about 500,000 customers in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.
Price transparency is an essential element of competitve wholesale market design. A good illustration of this is the availability of real-time (current) wholesale prices in all major competitive markets (ERCOT, PJM, NYISO, New England) as provided in map form by a major energy company, GDF Suez.
Instructions for how to access detailed electric industry data from the FERC is available here.
