Market participants gain energy trading tools

True deregulation of the utility industry can not happen without the creation of vibrant energy trading markets that allow buyers and sellers of energy to freely engage in trading activities over a wide range of energy sources, products, and geographies. The creation of such markets is being impeded by the absence of adequate trading tools. Unfortunately, the trading facilities from other industries (such as the stock and commodity trading) can not be easily applied to power markets, due to peculiar technical characteristics of energy trading. Development of sophisticated energy trading tools is of paramount importance to the electric power industry. This article features an energy trading system (Open Access Same-Time Information Systems) developed by Open Access Technology, International, Inc. (OATI) and deployed in the Mid-Continent Area Power Pool (MAPP) region in January 1997.