EnWorkz
announces PowerUp risk management software.
Austin, Texas (October 1, 2002)
– EnWorkz, Inc. today announced the availability
of EnWorkz PowerUp™, a unified, portfolio-level
risk management solution for electric power generation,
delivery, and hedging. Based on breakthrough, high-performance
technology for modeling physical generation assets in
combination with financial instruments and delivery
contracts, PowerUp is designed to help energy companies
solve complex problems in areas of risk assessment,
portfolio optimization, valuation, contract structuring,
and resource scheduling. It also provides U.S. energy
companies with effective tools for coping with the new
standard market design proposed by the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC). For an energy company,
the benefits of using PowerUp include more predictable
earnings, improved efficiency, and more transparent
risk management at the corporate level.
A key feature of PowerUp is
its ability to accurately and quickly model the response
of electric power generators to market conditions. For
instance, on a typical desktop computer, PowerUp requires
only 10 seconds to simulate the behavior of a thermal
generator over a 25-year period with hourly granularity
(219,000 periods), with full consideration of ramp limits,
warmth-dependent start times, uptime and downtime constraints,
and ancillary services arbitrage opportunities. This
performance is up to 100 times faster than previous
algorithms for modeling or scheduling generation assets,
making it practical to consider hundreds or thousands
of scenarios in risk management, scheduling, pricing,
valuation, and scheduling decisions. Moreover, PowerUp
can simultaneously model the behavior of an entire portfolio
of generators, bilateral contracts, financial contracts,
and other instruments, avoiding the “suboptimization”
that can occur when assets are managed in silos.
According to Bill Tan, CEO
of EnWorkz, “We see a large and increasing need
in the industry for a new breed of risk management tools
that incorporate detailed physical models instead of
purely financial ones. For instance, FERC’s recent
proposals for overhauling the power markets, the declining
production rates of U.S. natural gas wells, and the
pending expiration of rate caps and power buyback agreements
across the industry, and the renewed focus on trading
around physical assets – all of these factors
have the potential to dramatically increase uncertainty
associated with asset returns and hedging. PowerUp is
an effective and practical tool for dealing with this
uncertainty. Our goal is nothing less than to contribute
to the turnaround of the U.S. power industry.”
Physical assets like generators
and loads can have complex payoff functions and subtle
embedded optionalities. As a result, traditional Wall
Street risk management models, designed for financial
instruments with relatively simple characteristics,
cannot be used without sacrificing the quality of analysis.
In contrast, PowerUp incorporates detailed physical
models to solve complex portfolio optimization and risk
management problems involving multiple asset classes,
multiple scenarios, operating flexibility, and various
mission critical constraints. “These are difficult
computer science problems, and this is not technology
that you can find in the published literature,”
stated Dr. Jim Christian, Chief Technology Officer at
EnWorkz. “We had to develop sophisticated new
algorithms, especially for the generator models, to
achieve the turnaround times and capabilities that are
necessary for an effective overall solution. To our
knowledge, nobody else in the industry offers anything
comparable – either they need 100 times longer
to execute, or they simplify the model to the point
that it isn’t very useful.”
About EnWorkz Inc
EnWorkz, Inc. develops state-of-the-art software technologies
for optimizing and managing the production, delivery,
and trading of electric power. With our EnWorkz 1.0™
energy portfolio management suite, energy businesses
have the advanced tools they need to make profits more
predictable, risks more transparent, and information
more accessible across the enterprise.
For more information about EnWorkz,
visit the website www.enworkz.com.
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