Event Schedule

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Xcelerate Orlando

Day 2 Schedule of Events

8:00 am - 9:00 am

Morning Coffee Break

9:00 am - 10:30 am

PLEXOS Certification Training for Beginners

Adding Markets & Constraints

Everything from Energy, Capacity, to Ancillary Services Markets play a crucial role in determining how system settlements occur. We explore a host of markets represented in PLEXOS and learn how to describe them. Along with Markets, custom constraints can be used to represent any number of policies, goals, and non-economic positions required for modelling the actual power sector.

Key Takeaways: 

  • How to add Markets to a dataset.
  • Constraints can be used to a variety of non-economic conditions.

Palazzo A

PLEXOS Intermediate/Advanced Training

PLEXOS Cloud

By working through an automation example using PLEXOS cloud, we aim to demonstrate how participants might go about implementing automatization processes in their own workflow. 

Key Topics: 

  • Automation 
  • Command Line Interface 
  • Stochastics 
  • Dashboard

Palazzo B

PLEXOS GAS Training

PLEXOS Gas Certification (Part 2)

This session will cover basins, zones, and transport.

Key Topics: 

  • The final part will cover capacity release offer and DSM Program

Palazzo C

AURORA Fundamentals

Model Logic and Algorithms

You will be taken through some of the major algorithm and logic methods in Aurora. 

Key Takeaways: 

  • Unit commitment and dispatch logic, zone price formation, hydro logic, and bidding logic.

Palazzo F

AURORA Advanced

Modeling Ancillary Services in Aurora

 Aurora can co-optimize the allocation of resources to meet ancillary services and energy requirements.

Key Topics: 

  • Explore the structure and reporting that supports a variety of ancillary service products.

Palazzo G

10:30 am - 11:00 am

Morning Coffee Break

11:00 am - 12:30 pm

PLEXOS Certification Training for Beginners

Heat Rates & Ancillary Services

PLEXOS allows the user to fine-tune the system using value-based modelling techniques. Heat rates are used as an example of how to build highly efficient models and how to combine the power of the Excel work environment with PLEXOS to maximize productivity.

Key Takeaways: 

  • How heat rates work to formulate short run marginal costs.
  • Value-based modelling maintains high quality while maximizing run times. 
  • Integrating Excel to the workflow dramatically increases productivity. 

Palazzo A

PLEXOS Intermediate/Advanced Training

Risk Analysis: Stochastic and Monte Carlo Methodologies

Since systems increasingly have more uncertainty, it's important to analyze the risk of variable generation such as hydro, wind and others. During this session we explain how to evaluate the stochastic and Monte Carlo methodologies in PLEXOS.

Key Topics: 

  • Water Values 
  • Stochastic Dual Dynamic Programming (SDDP) 
  • Rolling Horizons

Palazzo B

PLEXOS GAS Training

Best Practices & Managing Performance

 
The topic that everyone asks for, How do you recommend we model?
This topic digs into all the ways that Energy Exemplar has found to best use PLEXOS to model, use shortcuts, avoid issues, and speed up day to day tasks.

Key Topics: 

  • Ways to speed up a simulation
  • Why different methods are good and why others might be less effective or provide potential issues
  • Delve into steps, blocks, mixing block sizes, solver settings, performance tuning, and many other techniques.

Palazzo C

AURORA Fundamentals

Modeling Resources (Part 1)

In this exciting session, you will model several types of resources in Aurora.

Key Takeaways: 

  • Resources include: commitment, must run, peaking, renewable, energy storage, conservation, and demand response resources.

Palazzo F

AURORA Advanced

Workflow Automation in Aurora

 
This session will use the features and functionality available in Change Sets, Parameter Sets and Parallelization options to automate base and scenario studies.
 

Key Topics: 

  • Create and save multiple sets of changes to input data assumptions which can be layered within a single Aurora project
  • Manage the variation in assumptions generally associated with sensitivity or scenario analysis
  • Create and save changes in the project setup and simulation options within a single Aurora project.

Palazzo G

12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Networking Lunch

1:30 pm - 3:00 pm

PLEXOS Certification Training for Beginners

System Adequacy

Systems are prone to breakdowns and require maintenance. We explore system maintenance and random outages and how they affect the reliability of our system.

Key Takeaways: 

  • Three types of outages modelled in PLEXOS.
  • The Projected Assessment of System Adequacy (PASA) phase.
  • Reliability indices.

Palazzo A

PLEXOS Intermediate/Advanced Training

ST Model Calibration

This session mirrors the earlier LT session discussing the trade-off between precision and performance and includes some examination of unexpected behaviors in the ST.  

Key Topics: 

  • ST Behaviors
  • Precision vs. Preformace

Palazzo B

PLEXOS GAS Training

System Balancing

 
This session will provide instruction on techniques to system balancing supply and demand. 

Key Topics: 

  • Best tools and techniques to minimize the time from data entry to a fully balanced system

Palazzo C

AURORA Fundamentals

Modeling Resources (Part 2)

In this exciting session, you will model several types of resources in Aurora.

Key Takeaways: 

  • Resources include: commitment, must run, peaking, renewable, energy storage, conservation, and demand response resources.

Palazzo F

AURORA Advanced

Using Aurora to Model Constraints

 
The Constraint logic in Aurora is used to define annual, monthly, daily, and/or hourly constraints that affect the dispatch of resources, in ways that alter the usual economic dispatch order. 
The Custom Constraint option that offers user-defined linear constraints that are added to the optimization problem which solves the dispatch (LP) and commitment (MIP) using these constraints.

Key Topics: 

  • Captures Constraints
  • Custom Constraints
  • Learn how to set up constraints designed to enforce RPS, carbon reduction, fuel limits, fuel contracts and LT build constraints.

Palazzo G

3:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Coffee Break

3:30 pm - 5:30 pm

PLEXOS Certification Training for Beginners

Medium Term Modelling - Intro to LT Plan

It is impossible to consider every aspect of a system of any meaningful size over the medium term when operating in real-time. The MT Schedule solves this problem by optimizing medium term objectives and passing them to the ST Schedule.

Key Takeaways: 

  • How data can be simplified.
  • Types of decisions optimized in the Medium Term.
  • Chronological approximation strategies.

Palazzo A

PLEXOS Intermediate/Advanced Training

Universal PLEXOS

By using the Universal Classes in PLEXOS to model combinatorial and network flow problems, this session aims to reinforce the out-of-the box thinking introduced in the first session. 

Key Topics: 

  • Combinatorial Optimization Problems 
  • Network Flow Problems 

Palazzo B

PLEXOS GAS Training

Modeling Market Fundamentals and Depth

 
Compare and contrasting portfolio vs market fundamental modelling. 

Key Topics: 

  • Understand why the outputs aren’t the only differences. 
  • Training of elasticity, utilization price response, and market depth

Palazzo C

AURORA Fundamentals

Long Term and Constraints

In the final session of the Aurora Fundamentals track, you will see Aurora’s Long Term Capacity Expansion (LTCE) capability which models new builds and retirements, as well as planning reserve margins. 

Key Takeaways: 

  • You will implement an emissions constraint and determine whether the example system was able to meet the requirement.

Palazzo F

AURORA Advanced

All About Data

 
Come and learn more about our data offerings. We will be digging into the process, offerings and calibration. 

Key Topics: 

  • Exploring data sources, benchmarking and the release notes process

Palazzo G