FRONT OFFICE    

Overall Leadership

Overall leadership for the Front Office, and overall responsibility for the provision of high-quality services to Owners and Clients, is provided by Mike Steffes, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.  A full biography of Mr. Steffes can be found here. 

Portfolio Management East Region

Portfolio Management West Region/Scheduling

Member-Client Services/Origination / Structuring / Transmission

Fuels and Environmental Services 

Portfolio Management – East Region

Leadership

The APM East Desk is led by Keith Pope, Vice President of Portfolio Management - Eastern Region.

   

 

 “One of the interesting challenges that we face in the eastern U.S. is the transition from historically physical market structures to more financially-oriented market structures.  APM has managed this challenge by aligning both our commercial staff  and our Owner and Client portfolios  within the APM trading floors. We have the Carmel trading floor focusing on the financially-structured markets (such as MISO and PJM),  and the Cary trading floor focusing on the traditional physically-oriented markets in the Southeast and Florida.”

  

 

 

Serving ISO/RTO and non-ISO/RTO Markets

The APM East Desk helps manage and optimize the power supply portfolios of APM Owners and Clients in the upper midwestern and eastern areas of the United States.  Collectively, these Owners and Clients represent approximately 32,000 MWs of load and 21,000 MWs of resources.

Several APM Owners and Clients have load and resources inside one of the structured (ISO or RTO) markets in the East: Midwest ISO, PJM, New York ISO,  ISO England.

Also, several APM Owners and Clients have load and resources in the non-structured (physical) markets in the East, including the Southeastern U.S. and Florida.

Hourly Trading and Term Trading

The management and optimization of load and resources is handled on an intra-day basis by APM’s hourly traders, and on a day-ahead and longer basis by APM’s term traders.

East Desk operations take place at both the Midwest Regional Trading Center in Carmel, Indiana and at the East Regional Trading Center in Cary, North Carolina (near Raleigh). 

Physical natural gas scheduling for power plants located in the East is handled by this group.  Back to top 

Portfolio Management – West Region, and Scheduling

Leadership

The APM West Desk is led by Todd Pilcher, Vice President of Portfolio Management - Western Region.

 

 

 

“One of the challenges in the western region is that the market structures are undergoing significant changes – for example, Texas is planning to implement a Nodal Market, and California is getting ready to transition to the MRTU. So at APM we devote a lot of resources to understanding exactly how these changes will impact our Owners and Clients.”

 

 

 

 

Serving ISO/RTO and non-ISO/RTO Markets

The APM West Desk helps manage and optimize the power supply portfolios of APM Owners and Clients in the lower midwestern and western areas of the United States, as well as Texas.  Collectively, these Owners and Clients represent approximately 8,000 MWs of load and 9,000 MWs of resources.

Several APM Owners and Clients have load and resources inside one of the structured (ISO or RTO) markets in the West: Southwest Power Pool, ERCOT, California ISO.

Also, several APM Owners and Clients have load and resources in the non-structured (physical) markets in the West, collectively known as the WECC region (Western Electricity Coordinating Council).

Hourly Trading and Term Trading

The management and optimization of load and resources is handled on an intra-day basis by APM’s hourly traders, and on a day-ahead and longer basis by APM’s term traders.

West Desk operations take place at APM’s Midwest Regional Trading Center in Carmel, Indiana.

Physical natural gas scheduling for power plants located in the West is handled by this group.  Back to top 

Scheduling Group

The Scheduling Group handles the detailed and time-sensitive process of ensuring that power which is purchased for Owners and Clients can move from supply point to consumption point.  Back to top 

Member-Client Services, Origination, Structuring, and Transmission

Leadership

The Origination, Structuring and Member-Client Services groups are led by Eric Larson, Vice President of Origination.

 

  

 

“When APM began operations, our focus was on providing short-term trading services.  But now we have the ability to help our Owners and Clients hedge much longer term risks. We can analyze and negotiate transactions – standard or structured – that range from several months to several years.”

 

 

 

 

Member-Client Services

The Member-Client Services group plays a pivotal role in the implementation of new Owners and Clients.  They also serve as an active liaison between APM and its Owners and Clients, ensuring smooth communications and making it possible for APM to provide its services in the most effective manner possible.  

Origination (Several-Month to Several-Year Transactions)

The Origination group assists Owners and Clients with both standard and structured (customized) transactions, and with products and transactions that are longer-dated than what is handled by APM’s term traders.

 Specific activities of the group include:

  • Maintaining Counterparty Contacts
  • Negotiating Term Deals
  • Reporting forward price trends and developments
  • Recommending products
  • Executing transactions with counterparties (subject to APM’s delegated authority)

Structuring (Analytical Services)

The Structuring group uses sophisticated, probabilistic software to model Owner and Client power supply portfolios.  This group helps to identify power supply risks, and analyze the portfolio impact of various hedging strategies and transactions (including build vs. buy decisions).   

Transmission Group

The Transmission Group uses sophisticated software to accomplish two main tasks.  They analyze the availability of physical transmission over various planning horizons (short-term, medium-term and long-term).  They also analyze and forecast locational prices and congestion, to assist with congestion hedging strategies and transactions, and with power plant siting decisions.  Back to top 

Fuels and Environmental Services

Leadership

The Fuels and Environmental Services group is led by John Baileys, Director of Fuels.

   

 

“Because fuel and fuel-related items are a key driver of power supply costs, they represent a huge risk to our Owners and Clients. My group helps them better understand and manage those risks.” 

 

 

 

Coal-Related Services

This group assists Owners and Clients manage the risks around coal supply, coal transportation and emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Financial and Consulting Services

Also, the Fuels and Environmental Services group helps Owners and Clients by:

  • Executing financial transactions to hedge the commodity price risk associated with natural gas and coal
  • Managing SO2 and NOX Emission Allowances
  • Managing Renewable Energy Credits (RECs)
  • Providing consulting and procurement strategy development services for coal, natural gas and renewable energy

Meteorology

Assistance to Power and Gas Traders

The primary function of the Meteorology group is to provide targeted weather forecasts for APM Owners and Clients.  These forecasts are provided to power and natural gas traders to help them make better hedging decisions on behalf of Owners and Clients (including predicting and managing weather-driven load changes).

Customized Weather Products

The Meteorology group also generates customized weather products that are distributed directly to individual Owner and Client personnel.  In addition, the Meteorology group assists company management in Business Continuity decisions concerning both Carmel and Cary offices.  Back to top