June 6th, 2010 
admin Energy Trading and Investing: Trading, Risk Management and Structuring Deals in the Energy Market
“The essential training manual for anyone who expects to profi tably engage the energy market while avoiding the devils lurking in the details.”
Kurt Yeager, former President and CEO of the Electric Power Research Institute and coauthor of Perfect Power Shrinking fossil fuel supplies, volatile prices, deregulation, and environmental conservation have transformed the energy market into a major arena for making money. In response, an unprecedented amount of capit
Rating: 
(out of 3 reviews)
List Price: $ 69.95
Price: $ 44.85
Posted in 
Tags: 
Review by Kevin Keane for Energy Trading and Investing: Trading, Risk Management and Structuring Deals in the Energy Market
Rating:
Excellent book which describes how physical constraints significantly impact the trading of electricity and natural gas. It explains the physics behind pipelines and power systems in a fairly accessible way however I imagine it would be quite difficult for people who have never done physics. It introduces risk management and options in an easy to read fashion.
The only reason I gave it four stars is due to the incongruous 20 or so pages in the middle of the book in which the author gives us his significantly misinformed view on renewable energy. I hadn’t heard this one before, but apparently wind energy’s ability to limit oil imports is seriously offsetted by the need for lubricating oil in the wind turbine.
Two minutes on google tells me that a typical wind turbine (1.5MW) consumes about 100L of oil per year. That’s about 1MWh of energy. A wind turbine has a typical capacity factor of 30% which means it would generate approximately 4000MWh of energy per year. Thus the energy used for the lubrication oil is 0.025% of the energy generated.
So my advice is to buy the book but skip chapters 4.5-4.8.
Review by Thomas Snodgrass for Energy Trading and Investing: Trading, Risk Management and Structuring Deals in the Energy Market
Rating:
I’m not done reading this book, but so far it has been a fantastic introduction to the energy markets. Some of the material is repeated over and over, but it only helps reinforce the ideas. There are also some typos, but not to the point of being annoying. If you are looking for a great intro to the energy markets, including some of its physical characteristics (e.g., what it is, where it comes from, how its transported, how it’s processed, and where it ends up), then this is the book for you. The author has substantial experience in the energy markets and he wrote this book as something he wishes he had read when he got started.
Review by MG for Energy Trading and Investing: Trading, Risk Management and Structuring Deals in the Energy Market
Rating:
watch out for errors! It is a really useful book for somebody just getting into the energy industry. As a beginner, I was able to find a couple errors though, most profound is the Black-Scholes formula – it is copied incorrectly (formulas for d1 and N(x) in particular). Another error can be found on page 237, literally the last sentence. The lower a plant’s heat rate the more efficient it is.
Other than that – a great read!