NEMSEC study plan
NEMSEC · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 7 hours per week
Fundamentals of Energy Markets and Power Systems
Map the merit order of a thermal fleet and explain how marginal cost, heat rate, and fuel price set the clearing price
Differentiate energy, capacity, and ancillary service products and state which physical constraint each one procures
Trace real power flow versus reactive power support and explain why voltage and frequency are managed separately
Compute a simple two-bus DC power flow and interpret congestion rent on the constrained interface
Your checkpoint
A one-page annotated merit-order diagram plus a worked two-bus congestion example with numbers, both explained in your own words
Fundamentals of Energy Markets and Power Systems & Electricity Market Design and Market Clearing
Derive the security-constrained economic dispatch objective and list every binding constraint type that can set price
Explain locational marginal price decomposition into energy, congestion, and loss components
Contrast day-ahead, real-time, and intraday market timeframes and the settlement implications of each
Describe how unit commitment handles startup cost, minimum up/down time, and ramping limits
Your checkpoint
A written walkthrough of a three-node network showing LMP at each node with the congestion component isolated
Electricity Market Design and Market Clearing
Explain uniform-price versus pay-as-bid auction outcomes and the incentive properties of each
Model a simple bid stack and show how demand elasticity changes the clearing price
Describe capacity remuneration mechanisms and the scarcity signals they replace or preserve
Identify how bid formats, price caps, and gate closure rules shape strategic behavior
Your checkpoint
A spreadsheet or script that clears a five-unit bid stack under two demand scenarios and reports price, dispatched quantity, and producer surplus
Regulatory Frameworks and Compliance
Outline the licensing, registration, and market-entry obligations a participant must satisfy before trading
Distinguish the regulator, the system operator, and the market operator roles and their enforcement powers
Explain REMIT-style prohibitions on insider trading and market manipulation in wholesale energy
List record-keeping, transaction reporting, and disclosure duties with their typical deadlines
Your checkpoint
A compliance checklist covering entry, reporting, and record retention duties, each item tied to the authority that imposes it
Market Monitoring, Surveillance, and Abuse Detection
Define the abuse typologies to detect: economic withholding, physical withholding, wash trades, layering, and spoofing
Build screening metrics including markup over marginal cost, residual supply index, and price-cost divergence
Design alert thresholds and explain the false-positive tradeoff when setting them
Draft the evidence chain from automated alert through analyst review to referral
Your checkpoint
A surveillance playbook for one abuse typology: indicators, data fields needed, thresholds, escalation steps, and documentation standard
Energy Trading, Scheduling, and Settlement
Trace a trade from execution through nomination, scheduling, dispatch, metering, and final settlement
Compute a settlement statement covering energy, imbalance, and ancillary service charges
Explain nomination deadlines, imbalance pricing, and the cost of deviation from schedule
Reconcile metered volumes against scheduled volumes and isolate the cause of each variance
Your checkpoint
A reconstructed settlement statement for one hypothetical trading day with every charge line explained and reconciled to metered data
Risk Management and Financial Controls
Quantify position exposure using value-at-risk and explain the assumptions that make it understate tail risk
Set and justify credit limits, collateral calls, and margin thresholds for a counterparty
Design segregation-of-duties and limit-monitoring controls that catch a breach before settlement
Stress a portfolio against a price spike and a counterparty default occurring together
Your checkpoint
A risk control memo specifying position limits, VaR methodology, collateral policy, and escalation triggers, with one worked stress scenario
Cybersecurity and Data Integrity in Energy Markets & Market Monitoring, Surveillance, and Abuse Detection
Identify the attack surface across bidding systems, SCADA, metering, and market-to-market data exchange
Explain how data integrity failures distort prices and how to detect tampering or replay in submitted data
Apply access control, logging, and cryptographic integrity checks to a market participant's trade submission path
Run a timed mixed drill across monitoring, settlement, and compliance to expose weak domains
Your checkpoint
A data integrity control matrix mapping each market data flow to its threat, preventive control, detective control, and owner, plus drill results with a ranked list of remaining gaps
Milestones
Week 2: Without notes, decompose an LMP into its three components and explain which constraint produced each, scoring at least 8 of 10 on a self-written quiz
Week 4: Complete a 30-question mixed set on domains 1 to 3 at 75 percent or better, and confirm the compliance checklist covers every reporting deadline you can name
Week 6: Produce a settlement statement that balances to zero and correctly identify the abuse typology in three of four written scenarios
Week 8: Score 80 percent or better on a full-length timed mock spanning all seven domains, with no domain below 65 percent