The PLD is the price used to settle the difference between the volumes of energy contracted and measured in the negotiations between the agents of the Short Term Market.
The PLD is calculated through computational models that aims to optimize hydrothermal dispatch:
- Newave: calculates the PLD on a monthly basis within 5 years.
- Decomp: calculates the PLD on a weekly basis within 2 months.
- Dessem: calculates the PLD for every 30 min for the next day within 2 weeks.
Until January 1, 2021, the PLD was published weekly by the Chamber of Commercialization of Electric Energy (CCEE) considering three load levels (light, medium and heavy) classified according to the intensity of energy use in the different periods of the day, for each of the submarkets. Those prices were valid for the following week.
Since January 1, 2021, the PLD is calculated daily on an hourly basis, with values for each hour of the following day, for each of the submarkets.
The formation of prices with hourly granularity more adequately represents the variability of sources not dispatched in a centralized manner (intermittent wind and photovoltaic plants), which have an increasing participation in the Brazilian electrical system. The hourly price calculated daily uses the daily forecast of wind generation.
Thus, the new pricing model should present more realistic prices, that is, more compatible with the real cost of energy and more adherent to the verified load.
Hourly spot prices is also expected to allow for new business opportunities, such as more efficient consumption management, energy contracting at more competitive prices and new business models:
- Traders and generators will be able to structure new products according to the needs of customers.
- Consumers will be able to better assess and manage energy use, reducing load in periods with higher prices, shifting production to lower price periods, optimizing their costs and becoming more efficient and competitive.
- Investments in new businesses and technologies: such as energy storage, distributed generation and electric vehicles, for example.
The hourly PLD better reflects the cost of operating the electrical system, but it brings more volatility in the formation of the energy price in the spot market.
In order to take advantage of new products and opportunities, energy consumers will need to perform a much more accurate management of their contracts and energy consumption, as both will have a direct impact on their energy bill.
Customers who do not have a contract that provides for modulation according to the load profile, may have an impact on the cost of electricity in the settlement of CCEE, which accounts hourly for the customer's contract and actual consumption.
This impact varies according to the consumer's sector of activity and the possibility of making their production more flexible. In other words, there is the possibility of financial gains in sectors that have the flexibility to reallocate production to off-peak hours.
METRON has energy management systems and tools, offering large energy consumers a dynamic management of their contracts, automating their energy consumption in order to have an operation adherent to the distribution of hourly prices, enabling to anticipate the signaling of prices and take the necessary actions to mitigate risks and take advantage of opportunities.
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