Following some significant financial defaults by participants in its markets, PJM engaged Market Reform to provide advice concerning how it could improve its management of credit risk. A benchmarking study of credit risk management practices in a range of spot electricity and other markets was also conducted. This work also helped to inform subsequent rule-making by FERC. Normally our client work is confidential, but in this instance PJM has placed it in the public domain, allowing it to be made available here.
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Recent years have seen a growing awareness of credit issues in the energy industry, and improved efforts to manage these risks. Despite this trend, however, the credit risk protections employed by most electricity spot markets remain rudimentary, placing participants at risk of receiving a socialized share of large, unpredictable and unhedgeable losses. Spot Market Clearing offers a comprehensive solution to this problem, leveraging the proven clearing house infrastructure of futures markets, and extending it, to provide robust counter-party credit protection for spot markets in electricity. read more →
The collapse of Enron and recent energy industry credit crunch has again brought the issue of energy market credit risk management to the fore. An oft neglected area in these discussions is the management of spot market credit risk. Unlike forward markets, where fairly sophisticated risk management processes are available, the management of credit risk in many spot markets remains rudimentary. Changes to a few key processes, however, could significantly improve the way this risk is managed. read more →