A decision support system for energy trading between power generators

Since privatisation, the major electricity generating companies in Scotland (Hydro-Electric and Scottish Power) have had the opportunity to sell their energy in three distinct ways: directly to their customers; on a pre-arranged basis to the energy pool administered by the National Grid Company (NGC); on spot to each other. It is with this final aspect of energy trading that this paper is concerned. A computer-based decision support system is described which is designed to assist trading engineers to maximise the economic return available from trading hydro electricity