What Does Data Freshness Look Like in Power Markets?

Our six-part series delves into the importance of high-quality data in the power markets. Read the introductory post on data quality. 

Understanding how data latency impacts decision-making is critical for power plant operators, traders, and other market participants who rely on timely information to stay ahead of the power market. Minor information gaps can result in major risks, and real-time data is essential in these highly dynamic situations. 

In this blog, we’ll explore the intricacies of data freshness, cover examples of the impact freshness has on market participants, and provide key questions to ask data providers that will ensure you’re accessing the freshest data for decision-making.

What Is Data Freshness?

In our introductory blog on data quality and observability, we learned about data freshness:

In its simplest terms, “freshness” answers the question, “Is data coming in as expected right now?”

In the power market sector, data freshness refers to how up-to-date the information is regarding real-time grid conditions, generation output, demand, pricing, and more. Data freshness 

means continuously receiving the latest reported timestamp, giving you the most recent locational marginal price (LMP) and area control error (ACE) frequency value. 

This ensures your decisions are based on real-time data, not information from ten minutes ago.

Fresh data is critical so operators, traders, and other market participants can make informed decisions quickly, manage risk, and optimize strategies. Delayed or stale data can lead to poor decision-making, missed opportunities, and financial losses, since participants may react to outdated conditions in a fast-moving market.

In the example below, we’ve used our Live Power® premium grid-monitoring tool to highlight how quickly market conditions can shift. 

Source: Yes Energy’s Live Power

If you can’t access data shortly after it’s reported, you might miss critical signals like this. 

Whether you’re tracking demand, prices, or trends, timely data access can make all the difference in spotting and responding to emerging shifts effectively.

Understanding Data Freshness in Energy Markets

As an energy market participant, much of the information you rely on for decision-making comes from publicly reported data. Independent System Operators (ISOs), Transmission System Operators (TSOs), government agencies such as the Energy Information Association (EIA) or Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and several other sources report fundamental data. 

That means your data can only be as good as the reporting source. 

The problem? 

These data sources aren’t perfectly reliable. Here are some common examples that can impact your data pipelines’ freshness:

• Planned maintenance windows: Data sources often undergo maintenance, leading to delays in data updates, with the missing data posted in bulk once the organization completes the maintenance.

• Website changes: Sources upgrade their website and change URLs and file locations, which can break automated scripts. Your data pipelines won’t be fresh again until someone makes changes.

• File format changes: Data-reporting organizations often add or remove column headers. Your data pipeline may become outdated if it can’t understand the new file format.

• Partial or incomplete files: Sometimes posted files are incomplete. They’re missing several timestamps or locations such as groups of price nodes or specific load zones.

Examples of Data Freshness Impact

Stale data affects market participants differently depending on the way they interact in the market. Below are examples of the ways data freshness issues can make an impact.

The Importance of Data Freshness to Financial Traders 

For power traders, having fresh data can mean the difference between capitalizing on opportunities or missing out. 

Real-Time Trader

• Missed opportunity: Real-time power prices can shift rapidly because of fluctuations in supply and demand. If delayed data causes you to miss a major generation outage, you could lose valuable opportunities to buy or sell at optimal times — potentially costing you hundreds of dollars per MWh. 

Day-Ahead Trader

• Late morning forecast data: Day-ahead traders spend mornings analyzing potential trades based on the previous evening’s forecasts. However, a lot can change overnight. If you don’t have the opportunity to collect and review the latest forecast released before the trade deadline and miss the chance to rerun your analysis, your portfolio could be impacted by a few percentage points. 
• Late day-ahead locational marginal prices (LMPs): Every extra minute you wait for the latest day-ahead results delays your ability to analyze your position and prepare for the next market day. 

The image below shows how real-time traders can visualize market dynamics in one centralized view in Yes Energy’s PowerSignals® product. Nodal prices, transmission outages, transmission constraints, generation outages, weather data, and many other market fundamentals are pushed to our maps within one second of data published by the source. 

Source: Yes Energy’s PowerSignals

The Importance of Data Freshness to Utilities, Asset Managers, and Battery Operators

Utilities, asset managers, and battery operators also depend heavily on the freshness of data to effectively manage their business operations.

Data Freshness for Utilities 

• Stale load forecasts: Outdated load forecasts can cause you to underestimate or overestimate demand, leading to potential imbalances. You may need to buy additional power at a premium in the real-time market or face imbalance penalties, both of which can be costly and result in significant financial losses.

• Late grid condition and weather data: Delayed real-time data can lead to over-dispatching power. For instance, if new data reveals stronger-than-expected wind generation, you might end up dispatching more power than needed.

Data Freshness for Asset Managers

Having fresh data allows asset managers to:

• Make informed decisions on project planning, construction, and operations.
• Identify potential risks early, such as regulatory changes, market fluctuations, or technical issues, allowing for proactive risk management.
• Optimize investment strategies by identifying the most profitable, efficient technologies and locations.
• Monitor performance more efficiently. Continuous access to fresh data allows for real-time asset performance monitoring, enabling immediate adjustments to enhance efficiency and productivity.
• Ensure compliance with evolving regulations and standards, avoiding fines and operational disruptions.
  
  

   

  Portia Gilman chats about how the Yes Energy market monitoring team helps customers stay abreast of regulatory and industry changes.

   

Data Freshness’ Impact on Battery Operators

• Missed arbitrage opportunities: Optimizing battery dispatch is critical because you may only have a few minutes to a few hours of discharge available during the market day. Delays in receiving energy price data or generation outage data can cause you to miss peak discharge opportunities, directly reducing your revenue and preventing you from maximizing your potential revenue.
• Grid frequency changes: Batteries are critical for helping maintain grid stability. Grid frequency is constantly changing, and responding too late to a significant frequency change can destabilize the grid.

Without timely data, battery operators risk inefficiencies, lost revenue, and reduced effectiveness in supporting the grid and monetizing their assets. 

The image below provides an example of how battery operators can use our real-time, low-latency dashboard product QuickSignals® to track market fundamentals instantly, enabling effective asset management in the real-time market. We push data to the dashboard with sub-second latency, which is crucial for effectively managing assets.

Source: Yes Energy’s QuickSignals

Four Questions to Ask Your Data Provider to Ensure You’re Receiving High-Quality Data 

Here are four questions to ask potential providers to ensure you’re receiving the highest-quality data: 

1. How frequently do you update your data feeds, and what is the typical latency between data being reported and its availability to your customers?
2. Can you provide specific examples of your data refresh rates for critical market data such as locational marginal prices (LMPs), supply and demand figures, and weather-related data?
3. What mechanisms do you have to ensure that real-time data remains current and reflects the latest market conditions?
4. How do you handle data from sources that experience frequent outages or delays, and what is your strategy to mitigate the impact on data freshness?

Better Data, Better Delivery, and Better Direction with Yes Energy

This is the second blog of a six-part series on data observability. Subscribe to our blog so you’re notified first when the next blog in our data observability series comes out.

To learn how Yes Energy can support your power market needs with accurate, high-quality data, request a demo or check out our free sample data on the Snowflake marketplace. 

 About the author: Eli DeQuiroz has more than 10 years of experience building and maintaining data-intensive energy market software solutions. The majority of that experience focused on data collection and data engineering of real-time energy market data. At Yes Energy, he oversees the technical operations of all Yes Energy solutions, ensuring the reliability of the applications and data.