How a shift works
Roll the die, move west→east: CAISO → SPP → ERCOT → MISO → PJM → NYISO → ISO-NE → FERC HQ. Resolve every tile you land on. Reach the finale tile for the closing docket — or cash out early with a Settlement card from the Trade Deck.
Tile legend
QUIZMarket question — regional rules, products, and recent developments. +100 MW × level, +10 KP.
CALCAnalyst Desk — do the math: spark & dark spreads, LMP decomposition, system lambda, production cost, capacity factors. +150 MW × level, +15 KP.
RATESPlanning & rates — IRPs, integrated system planning, ratebase, revenue requirements, gas infrastructure. +125 MW × level, +12 KP.
INFOProduct spotlight — a briefing on a real product or program. +50 MW, +5 KP.
EVENTGrid event — scarcity, congestion, uplift, FTR payouts. MW swings; frequency safe.
BADGECheckpoint — region badge. +75 MW, +10 KP, progress toward the next level.
FERCFERC docket — landmark Orders and the 2024 Energy Primer. +150 MW × level, +15 KP.
FINALFinale — the closing docket, +300 MW × level, +30 KP.
Levels
Badges drive rank: 0–1 badges = L1 Analyst (×1.0 MW), 2–4 = L2 Operator (×1.25), 5+ = L3 Director (×1.5). The multiplier applies to every question payout — knowledge compounds.
Knowledge Points & the Trade Deck
Correct answers, spotlights, and checkpoints all pay KP. Spend 25 KP at the desk to draw from the 50-card Trade Deck: PPAs, heat-rate options, firm gas transport, FTR portfolios, frequency-response retrofits — plus setbacks. Every card is drawn at most once per run.
Streak rewards: every 3rd consecutive correct answer (3, 6, 9…) earns a free Trade Deck draw — the Trade button glows when you have one banked.
Three Early Settlement cards hide in the deck. Draw one and you may end the run immediately, banking your MW with a +10% settlement bonus — or hold your nerve and keep playing.
Frequency (your health bar)
Start at 60.00 Hz. Wrong answers cut deeper each time: −0.04 Hz for your first miss, −0.06 for the second, −0.08 for the third, escalating to a −0.14 cap. Correct answers recover +0.01 Hz (max 60.00). At 59.64 Hz, under-frequency load shedding trips and the run ends — the relays always win.
Streaks
Three or more correct in a row adds +25 MW per answer, and every 3rd earns the free trade draw. A wrong answer resets the streak.
Region cheat sheet
Analyst formulas
- Spark spread
- Power price − (gas price × heat rate ÷ 1,000). HR in Btu/kWh, gas in $/MMBtu.
- Dark spread
- Same formula with coal price and a coal heat rate (~9,500–10,500 Btu/kWh).
- Clean spark spread
- Spark spread − (emissions rate × carbon price).
- LMP
- System energy + congestion + marginal losses. Congestion = LMP − energy − losses.
- System lambda
- The incremental cost of the marginal unit serving the next MW.
- Production cost
- (Heat rate × fuel price ÷ 1,000) + variable O&M.
- Capacity factor
- Actual generation ÷ (nameplate × hours in period).
- Storage margin
- Discharge price − charge price ÷ round-trip efficiency.
Glossary
- ORDC
- ERCOT's scarcity price adder tied to loss-of-load risk × VOLL.
- FTR / CRR / TCC
- Financial rights paying day-ahead congestion rent between two points (PJM & MISO: FTR; CAISO & ERCOT: CRR; NYISO: TCC).
- ICAP / UCAP
- Installed vs. unforced capacity; UCAP derates for forced-outage performance.
- ELCC
- Marginal reliability contribution used to accredit capacity.
- IRP / ISP
- Long-horizon utility resource plans; ISP co-plans gen, T&D, gas, and DERs across silos.
- Ratebase
- Prudent, used-and-useful capital net of depreciation; revenue requirement = ratebase × return + expenses.
- NGA §7
- FERC certificates for interstate gas pipelines.
- Henry Hub
- NYMEX delivery point and U.S. gas benchmark; other points trade as basis.
- eTag
- The request-for-interchange record scheduling energy between balancing authorities.
- UFLS
- Under-frequency load shedding — relays that drop load to arrest frequency decay.
