Introduction

Electricity Market Design Training Course provides a comprehensive understanding of how modern power markets are structured, regulated, operated, and transformed to support energy security, affordability, reliability, competition, and decarbonization. The course examines the fundamental principles of electricity market design, including wholesale and retail market structures, market power, pricing mechanisms, bidding strategies, transmission constraints, congestion management, balancing markets, ancillary services, capacity mechanisms, and cross-border electricity trading. Participants will explore how renewable energy integration, distributed energy resources, battery energy storage, demand response, smart grids, electrification, and digital technologies are reshaping conventional electricity markets. The program connects economic theory with practical market-operation considerations, enabling participants to evaluate how different market structures influence investment, dispatch, system flexibility, consumer outcomes, and long-term power-sector development.

Designed for professionals operating in increasingly dynamic and interconnected energy systems, the training focuses on future-ready electricity market frameworks that can accommodate high shares of variable renewable generation while maintaining system reliability and efficient price signals. Participants will investigate market coupling, locational pricing, flexibility markets, ancillary-service procurement, balancing mechanisms, capacity adequacy, renewable support mechanisms, carbon pricing, storage participation, prosumer models, and demand-side flexibility. Through practical exercises and international case studies, the course develops the ability to assess existing market arrangements, identify regulatory and structural gaps, design effective market rules, and evaluate reforms associated with the clean energy transition and net-zero economy. By the end of the program, participants will be better equipped to contribute to evidence-based electricity-market reforms that promote competitive markets, investment certainty, operational resilience, consumer value, and sustainable power-sector transformation.

Programme Curriculum

Electricity Market Design Training Course

Introduction

Course Duration

5 days

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

Understand the principles and economic foundations of modern electricity market design.
Evaluate wholesale, retail, bilateral, pool-based, and hybrid power-market structures.
Analyze electricity pricing, bidding, dispatch, and price formation mechanisms.
Assess market power, competition, and anti-manipulation frameworks.
Design effective balancing and ancillary-services markets.
Evaluate capacity mechanisms and approaches to resource adequacy.
Apply market-design principles to renewable energy integration.
Assess the role of battery energy storage and flexibility markets.
Understand congestion management, transmission rights, and locational pricing.
Evaluate demand response, prosumers, distributed energy resources, and consumer flexibility.
Analyze regional electricity trading, market coupling, interconnection, and cross-border markets.
Develop market-reform strategies supporting decarbonization, energy transition, and net-zero targets.
Apply international best practices to develop resilient, competitive, and future-ready electricity markets.

Target Audience

Electricity market regulators and policymakers
Energy ministry and government officials
Transmission system operators and distribution system operators
Electricity utilities and independent power producers
Energy traders, market analysts, and power-market specialists
Renewable energy, battery storage, and clean-energy developers
Energy economists, consultants, and financial professionals
Corporate energy managers and professionals involved in power-sector strategy

Course Modules

Module 1: Foundations of Electricity Market Design

Power-sector economics and the rationale for competitive electricity markets
Evolution from vertically integrated utilities to liberalized markets
Wholesale, retail, bilateral, pool, and hybrid market structures
Roles of generators, retailers, utilities, aggregators, consumers, and system operators
Key principles of efficiency, reliability, transparency, competition, and affordability
Case Study: Electricity-market liberalization and structural reform in the United Kingdom.

Module 2: Wholesale Electricity Markets and Price Formation

Day-ahead, intraday, real-time, and balancing-market structures
Bid stacks, economic dispatch, merit-order principles, and marginal pricing
Uniform pricing versus pay-as-bid mechanisms
Price volatility, negative prices, scarcity pricing, and market signals
Market forecasting, bidding strategies, and price formation analytics
Case Study: European wholesale-market price formation during periods of high renewable penetration.

Module 3: Market Power, Competition and Regulatory Design

Identifying and measuring market concentration and market power
Strategic bidding and electricity-market manipulation risks
Competition monitoring and market surveillance
Regulatory intervention, transparency, and compliance frameworks
Designing markets that balance investment incentives and consumer protection
Case Study: Market-power management and regulatory oversight in the PJM electricity market.

Module 4: Transmission, Congestion and Locational Markets

Transmission constraints and congestion management
Nodal versus zonal locational pricing
Locational Marginal Pricing (LMP) principles
Transmission rights, interconnection, and network access
Congestion revenue, grid investment, and network optimization
Case Study: Nodal electricity pricing and congestion management in the United States.

Module 5: Renewable Energy, Storage and Flexibility Markets

Electricity-market impacts of wind and solar integration
Managing intermittency through system flexibility
Battery energy storage participation in energy and ancillary-service markets
Demand response, aggregators, and distributed energy resources
Flexibility markets for a high-renewables power system
Case Study: Renewable integration, battery storage, and flexibility-market development in Australia.

Module 6: Ancillary Services, Balancing and Resource Adequacy

Frequency control, reserves, voltage support, and ancillary services
Balancing-market design and real-time system operations
Capacity markets versus energy-only market structures
Resource adequacy, reliability standards, and capacity accreditation
Scarcity pricing and incentives for flexible generation and storage
Case Study: Capacity-market design and resource adequacy in PJM.

Module 7: Regional Electricity Markets and Market Coupling

Fundamentals of cross-border electricity trading
Regional market integration and interconnection
Market coupling and coordinated transmission allocation
Cross-border congestion and transmission-capacity optimization
Benefits and challenges of regional power pools
Case Study: European electricity market coupling and cross-border day-ahead trading.

Module 8: Future Electricity Market Design and Energy Transition

Designing markets for net-zero and decarbonization pathways
Digitalization, smart grids, AI, advanced analytics, and automated trading
Prosumers, peer-to-peer energy trading, and distributed markets
Carbon pricing, clean-energy investment signals, and market reform
Building resilient, flexible, consumer-centric, and future-ready electricity markets
Case Study: Electricity-market transformation under high renewable penetration and net-zero transition scenarios.

Training Methodology

Interactive lectures and presentations.
Group discussions and brainstorming sessions.
Hands-on exercises using real-world datasets.
Role-playing and scenario-based simulations.
Analysis of case studies to bridge theory and practice.
Peer-to-peer learning and networking.
Expert-led Q&A sessions.
Continuous feedback and personalized guidance.

Register as a group from 3 participants for a Discount

Send us an email: info@fineskilltrainingcenter.org or call +254769199797

Certification

Upon successful completion of this training, participants will be issued with a globally- recognized certificate.

Tailor-Made Course

We also offer tailor-made courses based on your needs.

Key Notes

a. The participant must be conversant with English.

b. Upon completion of training the participant will be issued with an Authorized Training Certificate

c. Course duration is flexible and the contents can be modified to fit any number of days.

d. The course fee includes facilitation training materials, 2 coffee breaks, buffet lunch and A Certificate upon successful completion of Training.

e. One-year post-training support Consultation and Coaching provided after the course.

f. Payment should be done at least a week before commence of the training, to Fineskill Training Center account, as indicated in the invoice so as to enable us prepare better for you.

Programme Fee

Duration: 5 Days

Method: Online or Physical

Online Price: $1,000

Physical Price: $1,500

Certification: Accredited Certificate

View Available Dates 📄 Download Course Outline (PDF)

Available Sessions

Location

Month

Year

Sep 21 2026

21 Sep — 25 Sep 2026

💻 Online / Virtual session

Online $1,000