A Regulator's Guide to the Use of Production Simulation Tools for Market Analysis

October 2020 – With support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Europe and Eurasia, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) has developed the following two primers:

“A Regulator’s Guide to the Use of Load Flow Study Tools for Transmission Planning”
“A Regulator’s Guide to the Use of Production Simulation Tools for Market Analysis”

National regulatory authorities (NRAs) from the regions of Europe and Eurasia are responsible for monitoring, reviewing, and approving network investment plans (and in most cases long-term network development plans) for the electricity system, and are directly involved in promoting the development of well-functioning electricity markets and the regional integration of national markets.

In this context, these primers were developed to help regulators better understand the benefits and challenges of market coupling and extend their knowledge of tools commonly used by transmission system operators (TSOs) and other relevant stakeholders to evaluate market scenarios and perform a wide range of analyses.

This document focuses on the use of market simulation tools for planning and market analysis. It includes the following content:

the concepts of different market simulation tools;
relevant input data for a tool;
methods and benefits of scenario development and sensitivity analysis;
insights into how to interpret the results of different market simulations; and
the role of regulators in interpreting the market simulation results and relaying such information to decision makers.

You can access the primer here. A Russian translation is also available here.