Analytical tools via the online ASP model-a potent combination

An example of how effective ASP-based, wholesale energy market online analytical tools work is illustrated in this paper. The ASP collects and processes the necessary data and hosts them on secure database servers. The data may include historical and real-time load data, weather data, power flow cases, transmission grid data, market bids data, etc. Seamless platform-independent software integrates the complex analytical engines with the database and application web portals. To assist the energy market participants, several analytical functions can be brought online, such as load forecasting, pricing forecasting, transmission rights auction simulation, transmission congestion analysis, etc. All these are hosted at a reliable remote site. Users can access these online tools via an Internet portal provided by the ASP.