BUEC 563 Energy Industries and Markets Syllabus
Spring Semester, 2020
Instructor: Hailing Zang
Office Hours: By email request and meet through Google Meet Email: [email protected]
Office: BUS 340-C Phone: 780.492.7720
1. Course Overview
This course provides students with deeper understandings of the energy industry in the electricity, oil, and natural gas markets. The goal of this course is not only to set the current pictures of the energy industry of the Alberta markets, but also to broaden the students’
view of the global market as well as towards the future. The course will be organized in a way to provide much discussion among student peers through case studies and class participations.
2. Course Expectations
After finishing this course, students should be familiar with the construct of the market, the economics behind the market and be able to think through the market equilibrium process.
Students should not only have a fresh understanding about the current energy market conditions, but also should develop a global and forward looking way of thoughts in conducting business in the energy field.
3. Required textbooks
There are no required textbooks for this class, most materials are available online.
Students are encouraged to read news and researches in the industry to keep updated. I will post relevant materials on the eClass from time to time.
4. Prerequisite
BUEC 502 or 503. Not open to students with credit in BUEC560.
5. Evaluations
Exams (50%)
There will be two exams during the semester. The first exam will cover the electricity industry and the second exam will cover the oil and gas industry. Each exam is worth 25%
of your total mark.
First exam: June 3 at about 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM Second exam: June 5 at about 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM
Background Knowledge Briefing (10%)
I would like to have each one of you give the class a short (5-minute) briefing about your work, anything that you find interesting that you would like to share with your classmates.
In this way, even though we won’t be able to sit together in a classroom, and probably won’t chat with each other, this will gives us an opportunity to know each other, and, most importantly, your work experience will enrich our real-world experience about the energy sector if you were/are working in the energy industry before.
Every day I will allow a 1-hour time frame for up to 6 - 7 people to talk about their work experiences starting June 2 (breaking into two sessions). A list of the sequence to provide will be on the e-Class on June 1.
Term paper (40%)
You are required to write a term paper about the energy industry. Anything that interests you will work. The word limit is 2000 words, not including references and charts. This is an individual research work, so simple copy and paste won’t let you achieve a high mark and will probably lead to academic plagiarism if not properly quoted. An important rubric for my marking is to see whether you have done some independent study on your own, including but not limited to independent data analysis.
Term paper due: June 14 at 11:59 PM.
6. The Code of Student Behavior
The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behavior (http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/gfcpolicymanual/content.cfm?ID_page=37633) and avoid any behavior which could potentially result in suspicious of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University.
7. Course Outlines
June 1: Course overview and introduction Electricity market overview Electricity market architecture
June 2: Locational Price, Hedging tools in the market Ancillary service markets
June 3: Special topics in electricity markets
Renewables impact to the electricity market
Exam I
June 4: Oil and natural gas industry history Oil and natural gas basics
Oil industry structure
June 5: Natural gas industry structure World oil and natural gas market Exam II