Trade and Risk Systems Will Be Able To Assist Effective Decisions

Olga Gorstenko, Manager of Consulting Services for ZE PowerGroup and Bruce Colquhoun, ZE PowerGroup's ZEMA Sales Manager, attended the APPrO (Association of Power Producers of Ontario) Conference which was held in Toronto on November 16-17, 2010. The conference focused on the Ontario's Green Energy Act and issues associated with its implementation. The event attracted over 1,200 attendees, with a majority of which representing the renewable power sector. The political aspect of the public policy was the core issue under review.

According to Olga, the representatives expressed interest in the effects from renewable generation expansion, with the emphasis on financing, environmental concerns and future development of the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) and generation procurement programs. Also she said that the participants discussed system reliability, transmission expansion and upgrades, and distributed generation connections with the grid.

Bruce participated as a speaker on a panel and outlined his vision of the role of Data Management Systems (DMS). In particular, he emphasized that improved DMS will allow companies to continue to make effective decisions in the face of ever increasing data. "It is an increasing importance to automate properly the collection and analysis of data and the ability to integrate with trade and risk systems. Companies that do this effectively will have a distinct advantage by being able to take decisive actions based upon highly complex data sets with greater confidence and speed. DMS will be the engines that drive this," said Bruce.

ZE PowerGroup was the Technical Sponsor of the event and was pleased with the turn out.

ZE PowerGroup and Adapt2 Provide an Integrated Custom ISO Scheduling and Settlement System for ERCOT Nodal Market Transactions

ZE PowerGroup Inc ^® (ZE) announced its collaborative development with Adapt2 Solutions, Inc. to create an integrated scheduling and settlement support system for clients preparing for the ERCOT Nodal transition. The engagement is designed to combine Adapt2's deep market knowledge and software development capabilities with ZE's expertise in market data collection and integration.

ZEMA's scheduling engine, the Data Manager, is being used as the middleware component to Adapt2's ISO Scheduling and Settlement framework. The overall system is initially targeted for the upcoming ERCOT nodal market launch but is readily applied to any ISO market.




ZEMA provides a scheduling interface for Adapt2 to send and receive Market Transactions amongst other datasets within the ERCOT Nodal framework. Data capture and posting includes:

• Energy Trades - Bilateral
• Ancillary Services
• Congestion Revenue Rights Offers
• Capacity Trades
• DAM (Day Ahead Market) and RTM Energy Bids - Awards
• RUCs - Charge Management
• Month to Date Settlement Reporting - Daily Drill Down

The overall service complies with the secure communication protocol developed by ERCOT and allows for confirmation of each transaction within the clients existing ETRM.



Waleed El-Ramly, COO Product Development at ZE PowerGroup states, "This collaboration makes sense for both of us. We are familiar with Adapt2 and have worked together on other accounts. They understand the nodal market requirements from both a systems and client standpoint. Using ZEMA we provide them the tools that they can leverage to post and return transactions and settlements data back to their solution. We facilitate trade activities and the overall settlements calculations." Francisco Diaz, President of Adapt2, adds, "ZE is a dominant market player when it comes to data acquisition and enterprise solutions, they know how to handle information of any type. The client benefits with best of both worlds through a robust and also cost effective solution created by two strong software providers."

ZE and Adapt2 have already introduced the new system to the market and are currently in the testing phase of implementation by their collective clients. For detailed information on services relating to the management of ERCOT's Nodal transition, contact a ZEMA representative today.

The Energy and Commodity Data Conference to Become a Premier Global Annual Event

The response from the User Forum and Data Management Conference has been very positive and ZE is looking forward to making this annual event the premier global energy and commodity data conference.

Most of attendees gave a very positive feedback saying that it was a very interesting and useful event. They described the function as a productive way to share ideas and to learn more about ZEMA software. Their appreciation of the great hospitality of Vancouver was notably acknowledged. Sample feedback from the events:

"I just wanted to thank you for the Conference. It was a very interesting event with a lot of diverse presenters and it helped us understand better the potential for our use of the ZEMA product going forward."

"I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for organizing such a great conference. It was a productive way to share ideas and learn from the best in the industry. It also provided in-depth exposure to the ZEMA products and services in order to for us to enhance the value it brings to our organization. It was a pleasure to meet the ZE Power organization and we look forward to our continued partnership. Please pass along my thanks to everyone who made the conference such a success!"

"It was my pleasure to talk about your software. Hope to be partners with you for years to come."

"Thank you for providing us with a sponsorship opportunity and allowing us to participate in a panel discussion. What a nice event, congratulations!"

"I very much appreciate the hospitality in showing me your home city and hosting us for the ZEMA User Conference. The sushi was great but enjoyed getting to know one another even more."

"...it was great to meet you and your colleagues last week, thank you very much for the invite. We respect the spirit and professionalism of everyone at ZE. We look forward to continuing our progress with ZE and we are confident we can accomplish great things together."

"Thank you for your hospitality in Vancouver!"

"That was very useful and productive conference."

2010 ZEMA User Forum and Enterprise Data Management Conference Successfully Ended

Last week many attendees of the ZEMA User Forum and Enterprise Data Management Conference said good bye to Vancouver and returned home. The exciting events brought together friends and colleagues within the energy and commodities industries for a valuable information exchange and networking opportunity. Many were happy to join us and share their insights with the experts in the industry. The events were also filled with corporate functions and social events with non-profit benefits, and as most agreed, their time was well-spent. The events were well received and created energy for the future ideas and projects.



The User Forum's first day was opened by a welcome speech from Dr. Zak El-Ramly, the CEO, president and founder of ZE PowerGroup. Following Dr. El-Ramly, the ZE IT group gave a few presentations where users were engaged and sessions were overall interactive. New product demonstrations included ZEMA Dashboard, ZEMA Data Validation, and the new ZEMA Curve Manager add-on. The ZEMA users' discussions were focused on the challenges of managing broker data feeds and the frequent data format changes associated with them. The second day of the User Forum was hosted by the ZE Consulting Group and was filled with the demonstrations of ZEMA Market Analyzer's tool capabilities with a focus on Forward Curve capabilities. During the discussion, the users provided a few new ideas and suggestions that will help to make some interesting improvements and additions to the ZEMA Suite of Products.

Among the Conference speakers were

• Aiman El-Ramly, Senior Vice President Strategy, ZE PowerGroup Inc.


• Alex Melekhin, Director of Analytics, ZE PowerGroup Inc.


• Alex Zhukovsky, Director Quantitative Risk, National Grid


• Anup Singh, Director Global Markets, Sapient


• Bjorn Hagalmann, COO, MRE Consulting


• Daniel Brummer, Director of Alliances, Allegro Development Corporation


• David Linton, Chief Executive, Updata


• Don Jefferis, Partner, Opportune LLP


• Dr. Zak El-Ramly, President and CEO, ZE PowerGroup Inc.


• Larry Heitkemper, Vice President and Director Weather Services, MDA Earthsat Weather


• Manal El-Ramly, Director Eastern Office, ZE PowerGroup Inc.


• Michal Peliwo, Manager, Product Development, ZEMA Suite


• Olga Gorstenko, Manager, Consulting, ZE PowerGroup Inc.


• Ross Allen, Washington Bureau Chief, Argus Media Inc.


• Sam Wilhelm, Director Business Development, SolArc Inc.


• Spencer Gallagher, Senior Director, Reference Data Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data, Interactive Data Corporation


• Tatum Vittengl, Sales Executive, Weather Service International (Weather Channel)


• Tim Almdal, Enterprise Architect, ZEMA Suite


• Timothy Hebert, Vice President Energy Operations, Energy New England

The Conference ended Thursday night with a closing speech by Dr. Zak El-Ramly, where he thanked all who attended the events. For more information about these two exciting events that took place in Vancouver, BC, October 24-27 please visit ZE Conference Organizers.