Capacity Center Releases 2018 Top 20 Pipeline Capacity Traders Report

Tenaska Tops the List Again with 7.6 Bcfd Traded

Boston, Massachusetts – March 14, 2019 – Skipping Stone, a global energy markets consulting and technology services firm, announced that their affiliate, Capacity Center, has released its 11th annual Top 20 Capacity Traders Report. In addition to the Top 20 Traders, this report lists Top 20 Pipelines traded on, together with an analysis that reveals trends in the natural gas trading market, including the numbers, duration, and quantities of deals entered into during the entire 12 months of 2018.

“Tenaska was once again the top Capacity Trader based on annualized capacity acquired,” said Skipping Stone President Greg Lander, “with Direct Energy moving into second trading places with BP at number 3. Exelon Non-Reg moved up one to 4th, Sequent dropped one place to 5th. DTE, Emera, NRG, took 6th, 7th, and 8th respectively, while EDF Trading re-entered the top 20 at number 9 after being bumped out of the top 20 in 2017. Castleton Commodities moved up the most (22 places) and into the top 20 for the first time placing 10th after steadily moving up from 47th in 2016 to 32nd in 2017.

Other traders joining the top 20 for the first time were Concord Energy moving up 17 places to finish at 14th and Eco Energy at moving up 9 places to become 17th. In addition, United Energy Trading re-entered the Top 20 at 19 after dropping out in 2017.”

The report provides the Top 20 rankings by utilizing the 2018 entries to Capacity Center’s database of all the transportation capacity release deals on 104 tracked interstate pipelines. Rankings were determined based on annualized capacity acquired through capacity release trades excluding volumes done due to acquisitions and between related affiliates.  Methodology details are described in the report.

The annual report also provides:

  • A table with the full list of Top Twenty Capacity Traders, their count of 2018 deals done, multi-year annualized traded capacity and changes from full year 2017 capacity trading statistics
  • A table of the Top Twenty pipelines with their annualized and total multi-year annualized traded capacity
  • A discussion of the size and number of capacity traders in the forward market relative to all capacity traded in the pipeline capacity market

The full report is available at CapacityCenter.com.

For more information about the rankings or about Capacity Center, contact Katherine Castillo, kcastillo@capacitycenter.com or (978) 717-6144.

About CapacityCenter.com

CapacityCenter.com is owned and operated by the energy markets consulting firm, Skipping Stone LLC. Its automated services monitor capacity release offers, system notices and deal award information, as well as streaming available transactions and their details as they occur to its customers via email for trading, risk and regulatory compliance, and for deal origination and valuation purposes. Please visit http://www.capacitycenter.com for more information.

Skipping Stone Participates in 9th Microgrid Global Innovation Forum

Atlanta, GA – March 12, 2019 – Skipping Stone Partner Ross Malme will participate in the 9th Microgrid Global Innovation Forum, North America. The forum, March 18-20, in Washington, D.C. brings together key industry executives for focused networking and information sharing concerning the design, implementation, and operation of renewables-centric microgrids in North America and globally.

Organizers describe the event as having an emphasis is on maximizing the effective use of sustainable distributed energy resources, refining the positive business model for a range of microgrid deployments, and sharing real-world case studies in both grid-tied and off-grid environments.

“More and more, our clients are seeking a path to a reliable energy grid, one that allows them control over energy use,” said Ross Malme. “Energy efficiency has become important, not only for economic reasons, but also because of increased environmental awareness.”

Ross will moderate a panel on Monday morning entitled Learning from the Leaders: Tech Innovator Perspectives. Also on the panel are Lee Ragsdale, Senior Vice President, Grid Infrastructure and Compliance, North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives – Andy Haun, SVP – Chief Technology Officer, Microgrid Business, Schneider Electric – and John Glassmire, Senior Microgrid Advisor, ABB.

The event will focus on:

  • Microgrid feasibility, design, and implementation
  • Refining the business case for hybrid, renewable energy microgrids
  • Solar + storage advances
  • Utilization of energy storage for microgrid scenarios
  • Advanced battery, fuel cell, and flow battery technologies
  • Microgrid power control, management, and grid integration
  • Optimizing the management of distributed renewable energy resources
  • Effective project evaluation, implementation, and management
  • Microgrids as a grid resiliency and reliability strategy
  • Standards and interoperability issues
  • Market drivers and opportunities worldwide

“The international market for Smart Grid technologies is becoming increasingly attractive to U.S. companies as their expertise is sought after by countries with emerging economies and burgeoning energy needs,” continued Malme, “and this forum affords a great opportunity for deeper conversations than most events provide.”

To find out more about Skipping Stone’s work in Smart Grid Markets, contact Ross Malme: RMalme@SkippingStone.com.

 

 

Skipping Stone assists in implementation of Initiate at DistribuTECH

Atlanta, GA – February 15, 2019 – Skipping Stone, a global energy markets consulting and technology services firm, participated in DistribuTECH’s inaugural Initiate program. DistribuTECH – the largest annual event for the transmission and distribution industry – hosted 12 start-ups in New Orleans and gave them each a chance to pitch their companies to a panel of judges.

Serving on the judging panel was Skipping Stone Partner, Ross Malme. Ross, a DistribuTECH Advisory Committee member, was excited to offer this unique opportunity to be heard to the young companies which represent the future of the grid, showcasing technology that utilities can use today to better manage their grids and customers.

“Attendee feedback was extremely positive for Initiate, which gives early stage energy technology entrepreneurs a platform to present their solutions to potential customers, utilities, and investors,” commented Malme. “Skipping Stone congratulates this year’s winners, GridX, Extensible Energy, and Gridmates.”

Other Initiate participants included Anax Power, Brenmiller Energy, Delta Thermal, Go Electric, Logical Buildings, Omega Grid, OnNow Digital, Pathion, and Sabreez.

Andrew Griffis, CEO of Delta Thermal, said that it’s difficult for new companies to get exposure to the right audience and that “we found the Initiate venue at DistribuTECH to be very effective to align our offer with the conversations of the T&D marketplace.”

He added: “The unspoken yet communicated narrative of ‘come see what’s new and helpful in technology’ by virtue of the platform at the conference proved to be quite effective.”

Griffis expressed his appreciation for Initiate judge Ross Malme, who connected him with several strategic companies.

Skipping Stone has been opening the doors of opportunity to companies in the energy industry since 1996. In addition to encouraging entrepreneurship by participating in Initiate, Ross leads Skipping Stone’s engagement as Technical Advisor to the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) which is focused on export of US Smart Grid Technologies to the developing world.

Capacity Center Announces New Service: Capacity Locator

CapacityCenter_com 1000Online Access to Pipeline Capacity Deals on All Pipelines

Boston, Mass – December 5, 2018 – Capacity Center announced the launch of its new service offering, Capacity Locator. This new service allows subscribers to see every biddable capacity release offer on every pipeline in one online location. Users can click through from Capacity Locator straight to the pipeline EBB if they are interested in bidding on available capacity. The service shows all current open offers by pipeline with the ability to refresh throughout the day to keep up to speed as the market changes.

Capacity Locator is free to subscribers and complements Capacity Center’s other information services: Capacity Offer Bulletins (detailed offers emailed as they are posted), Capacity Awards Reports (daily summary with pricing data of all deals done the previous day), Open Season Alerts, and Critical Notices (outages, OFO’s and any notices impacting gas flow). Companies can choose from among the 104 pipelines in the Capacity Center system and subscribe to those pipelines they are interested in or active on.

“Capacity Locator was developed to save time and effort for users who monitor pipeline bulletin boards throughout the day to shop for capacity deals. Capacity Locator allows the user to monitor all the offers on all the bulletin boards in one location and jump straight to the bulletin board to bid on a deal of interest,” explained Greg Lander, Capacity Center President.  “With the number of deals increasing each year, and profits more and more dependent on taking advantage of deals as they become available, the ability to keep up to speed and yet maintain labor costs were the key drivers behind Capacity Locator.”

About Capacity Center

Capacity Center www.capacitycenter.com operates the only 24/7/365 natural gas pipeline data center covering 104 US pipelines. Its proprietary systems monitor and track capacity release offers, deal awards, system notices, and open seasons. Subscribers can select from one to all pipelines. Capacity Center also provides market analytics and historical capacity transaction data to trading companies, pipelines, regulators, retailers, financial institutions, and others. Capacity Center is wholly owned by Skipping Stone, LLC.  www.skippingstone.com

For additional pipeline capacity market information and/or analysis, please contact Katherine Castillo, kcastillo@skippingstone.com or 978-717-6144.

Media contact: Nancy Young, Marketing Director, Skipping Stone, nyoung@skippingstone.com,  (832) 279-3029.

XOOM Energy Japan is #24 and the Fastest Growing Retailer in Japan

Tokyo, Japan – November 29, 2018 – Skipping Stone, a global energy markets consulting and technology services firm, has assisted several U.S. based retail energy marketers to enter the Japan electricity market.  Skipping Stone client, XOOM Energy Japan GK, recently achieved the rank of #24 among the 400 electricity retailers in the Japan market. Skipping Stone analyzes regulatory and market activities and tracks market share statistics in its monthly Japan Energy Market Report, which also indicates XOOM Energy Japan is the fastest growing retailer in Japan.

“Congratulations to XOOM Energy Japan, this achievement is remarkable given the company only launched its Japan operations two years ago,” said Peter Weigand, Chairman and CEO of Skipping Stone. “There are challenges to expanding to any new market; however, going to a different country with language barriers and hiring people who don’t have retail energy experience is an even greater challenge. The fact that XOOM Energy Japan was not only able to overcome those challenges, but also grow so rapidly is a credit to their management team,” continued Weigand.

“We knew, being the first non-Japanese company to be registered by METI to serve low-voltage consumers and being early to this new market would present unique challenges,” said Thomas Ulry, CEO of XOOM Energy Japan.  “But with our roots in a wide range of North American retail markets, we understood this experience would give us an advantage in Japan. We have been working hard to transfer this know-how to our Tokyo team while adapting our business practices to Japanese culture and the evolving market.  While much work remains, we are pleased with our progress.”

The Japan retail electricity and gas markets are open to every customer to switch their supply from the utility to a retailer. With 83 million potential electric customers and 25 million gas customers, the Japan retail energy market is the largest and newest in the world.  Switching activity in electricity has been robust with an average of 400,000 switches per month.  As of September 2018, there are still over 85% of the customers who have not switched.

“We expect the switching activity to get even more robust as the price to beat from utilities is slated to be dissolved in April 2020,” added Weigand.  “We fully expect to see some of our other US retail clients we have assisted in entering the Japan market to hit the Top 25 in the not too distant future.”

About Skipping Stone

Skipping Stone is an energy markets consulting firm that helps clients navigate market changes, capitalize on opportunities and manage business risks. Our services include market assessment, strategy development, strategy implementation, managed services, technology selection, technology implementation, project management and talent management. Our sector focus areas are natural gas and power markets, demand response, technology services, renewable energy, and distributed energy resources. Skipping Stone’s model of deploying energy industry veterans has delivered measurable bottom-line results for over 270 clients globally. Headquartered in Boston, the firm has regional offices in Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and London. For more information, visit SkippingStone.com or www.skippingstone.co.jp.

For information about our monthly Japan Energy Markets Report (in English), please contact Atsuyo Miller.  AMiller@skippingstone.com (714) 316-1921

Media Contact:

Nancy Young
Director of Marketing
Skipping Stone
NYoung@skippingstone.com
(832) 279-3029

Skipping Stone Partner in Demand for Smart Grid Expertise

Atlanta – October 10, 2018 – Skipping Stone Partner, Ross Malme will be involved in several major sustainability/grid optimization conferences across the country during October. Ross is recognized as an international smart grid expert.

He will chair a session Horizon 18 Boston on Integrated Clean Economy Infrastructure: Next Generation Smart Cities at 3 PM on Thursday, October 11th at the Hyne Convention Center in Boston. He will also give a presentation on IoT and the Evolution of DER at 12:00 PM in the Pitch Arena at the conference.

In addition, Mr. Malme will be presenting results from a recent utility survey conducted by Skipping Stone entitled Reinventing the Electric Utility at the 5th annual Demand Response and Distributed Energy Resources World Forum in Costa Mesa, California at 1:30 on Tuesday, October 16th. At 9:00 AM on October 17th Ross will chair a panel on International DR and DER Opportunities.

October 18-19 will find him in Charlotte, North Carolina, attending the World Energy Engineering Conference at the Charlotte Convention Center.

Ross is Co-Chair of PLMA’s International Interest Group, which ill meet during the 38th PLMA Conference in Austin, Texas, November 12-14. The interest group will meet at noon on Monday, the 12th as Ross discusses the most recent US Department of Commerce Smart Grid Top Markets report which ranks the top 10 international markets for T&D, ICT and Energy Storage. Co-Chair Scott Coe will give an update on DER standards being developed by the IEC.

For more information on any of these presentations and opportunities, or to get a meeting with Ross, contact Nancy Young at nyoung@skippingstone.com or 832-279-3029.

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About Horizon 18
Horizon 18 is the global solutions platform for the clean economy. Horizon 18 is where climate goals translate into solutions, innovations, investments, and partnerships. Horizon 18was established by NECEC, MassCEC, and World Climate Ltd to create a platform that brings together leaders in Boston and around the world for clean economy solutions. horizon.org

About Demand Response & Distributed Energy Resources World Forum
The DRWF brings together stakeholders from across the DR / DER industry and internationally to examine the latest technology advances, case studies, and business strategies for optimizing demand response, energy efficiency, DER integration and control, and demand side management programs. The event will help utilities and C&I end users realize the full economic benefits of incorporating these capabilities into their operations and leveraging the next-generation smart grid to optimize performance. www.drworldforum.com
About World Energy Engineering Congress
The World Energy Engineering Congress (WEEC) is the largest energy conference and technology expo held in the U.S. specifically for business, industrial and institutional energy users. It brings together the top experts in all areas of the field to help you set a clear, optimum path to energy efficiency, facility optimization and sustainability. www.energycongress.com

About PLMA
PLMA was founded in 1999 as the Peak Load Management Alliance to be the voice of demand response practitioners. PLMA brings together a community of experts dedicated to sharing knowledge and providing resources to promote inclusiveness in the design, delivery, technology, and management of solutions addressing energy and natural resource integration. PLMA members share expertise to educate each other and explore innovative approaches to demand response programs, price and rate response, regional regulatory issues, and technologies, as energy markets evolve. Learn more at www.peakload.org.

About Skipping Stone
Skipping Stone is a consulting and technology services firm that helps natural gas and electricity utilities, market participants and solution providing clients globally to navigate market changes, capitalize on opportunities and manage business risks. The firm provides a wide array of services from innovation through strategy development, market research and assessment to implementation of business plans and technologies. Skipping Stone’s model of deploying energy industry executives has delivered measurable bottom-line results for over 270 clients globally. Headquartered in Boston, the firm has offices in Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and London. For more information, visit SkippingStone.com or www.SkippingStone.co.jp.

Press Contact: Nancy Young +1 (832) 279-3029 nyoung@skippingstone.com