The CTRM Blog

A UtiliPoint IssueAlert and CommodityPoint CommodityAlert
By Patrick Reames, Managing Director

The University of Houston’s Bauer School of Business launched their ETRM Systems course in the spring of 2010 with 18 students. Since that time, the program, founded and still lead by industry veteran Ed Bell, has grown steadily and has attracted considerable attention both on and off campus. According to Mr. Bell, “We’ve been pleased and gratified with the success of the program. We’ve seen significant and consistent growth in enrollment each semester, growing from 18 students in our inaugural semester, to 50 the next, then 70, and now more than 100 in this just concluded class.” He further noted that the spring 2012 semester currently stands at 10 MBAs and 121 undergrads, with a couple of weeks left for enrollment.

14th Dec 2011 – Energy Solutions International – Energy Solutions International (ESI) is delighted to announce that Gujarat State Petronet Limited (GSPL) has decided to expand their deployment of PipelineStudio. GSPL originally deployed PipelineStudio back in 2004. Recently a GSPL led consortium has been awarded a contract from Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) for the installation of three cross-country gas pipelines approximately 3800 Km long. PipelineStudio will be used in the hydraulic analysis and design of these Pipelines.

“The selection of PipelineStudio by Gujarat State Petronet Limited is yet another example of positive experience and value that Energy Solutions products deliver to our clients” said Siva Rao Vice President of Energy Solutions International – India.

It’s no secret that instant message (IM) systems have become one of the three primary communication channels for energy traders, along side the phone and online exchanges such as ICE.  Despite it’s popularity in energy trading, up until now it has been much like the phone – while the conversation could be recorded, its unstructured nature has made it difficult and impractical to try to programatically capture the conversation and reduce its relevant elements down to a set of data that could be automatically passed to a trading system, such as an ETRM or CTRM application.  The issue has been around understanding the semantics of the deal – what do the words on the screen, typos and all, mean?  As humans, we’re pretty adept at translating slang, shorthand, or mistyped words into meaningful concepts …software and computers, not so much.

Despite my somewhat optimistic early review in this blog, the Kindle Fire has, to me, become that once promising relationship that has turned sour and ugly.  Though I’ve tried to tell myself otherwise, the reality is that it was never all that promising to begin with.  But, like a relationship in which you’ve invested a bit of time and emotion initiating (as you might pursue an attractive girl), in your heart you want to believe it will turn out better than your brain tells you its going to, even after a first date filled with inane chit-chat in which your new companion’s only response to your side of the conversation is “huh?”.  Yep, that’s the Kindle Fire to me, the semi-attractive girl that just isn’t very smart and doesn’t possess the intuition to understand what it is you’re looking for.

NEW YORK, Dec. 12, 2011 – There’s an old proverb that states: “If you are not moving forward, you are moving backward.” This may indeed represent the state of the technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) industry with respect to information security, according to the results of the Deloitte 2011 TMT Global Security Survey.

After significantly increasing their information security budgets and efforts in 2010, TMT companies generally held steady on their information security activities, budgets, governance and reporting in 2011, according to the survey.