APEx was formed to promote the common business interests of parties engaged in the electricity and gas transmission and trading industry. One of its primary intentions is to provide a platform for sharing information between its members. APEx performs these functions by holding an annual conference of its members, as well as periodic, online webinar sessions featuring topics of interest in the ongoing development and operation of electricity and natural gas markets. The annual conference is held in a different part of the world each year, and attended by around 100 executive-level delegates from APEx members, regulators, government dignitaries, consultants, and vendors.
These conferences represent significant opportunities for energy market executives to learn from each other about challenges facing the energy industry around the world, as well as best practices for addressing these challenges both in the present and in the future.
APEx was formed and held its first annual conference in 1996 in Melbourne, Australia. Since then, APEx has held 25 such annual conferences, one every year with the exception of 2020 and 2021 when in-person attendance was not possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During those two years, APEx held online webinars open to its membership as well as other attendees in order to maintain the regular flow of information and ideas between and among its members. APEx has since held six webinar events, and has added online attendance as an option for its annual conferences as well. Since its formation, APEx has grown to over 45 members representing energy exchanges all over the world, and in various stages of development and maturity.
Frederick S. “Stu” Bresler, senior vice president – Market Services, PJM Interconnection, is responsible for all aspects of PJM’s market functions. Mr. Bresler’s responsibilities cover all of the markets operated by PJM, including those for Capacity, Day-Ahead and Real-Time Energy, Ancillary Services, Financial Transmission Rights and Demand Response operations. Mr. Bresler is responsible for the continued evolution of PJM’s markets, including the integration of renewable resources and the development of analytics around the performance of those markets.
Mr. Bresler has been involved with bulk power system operations and the development and implementation of electricity markets for capacity, energy, transmission rights and ancillary services for over 20 years. Mr. Bresler spent the first seven years of his career at PJM in System Operations, directly supporting dispatch through day-to-day transmission and generation analysis. He then was also responsible for the development and implementation of PJM’s demand response programs, as well as the systems and market design development necessary to support the expansion of the PJM markets. He led the development of mechanisms by which PJM’s operations and markets are coordinated with those of surrounding balancing authorities and regional transmission organizations.
Mr. Bresler earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and a Master of Management in business administration from The Pennsylvania State University. He is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Bresler is chair of the board of PJM Connext, Inc., a PJM subsidiary. Mr. Bresler is also chair of the board of APEx (the Association of Power Exchanges), an international organization of electricity and gas market operators, and is a member of the board of directors of the North American Energy Standards Board and Habitat for Humanity of Chester County. He is also on the External Advisory Board for the Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering in the Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.
PJM Interconnection, founded in 1927, ensures the reliability of the high-voltage electric power system serving 65 million people in all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. PJM coordinates and directs the operation of the region’s transmission grid, which includes over 84,236 miles of transmission lines; administers a competitive wholesale electricity market; and plans regional transmission expansion improvements to maintain grid reliability and relieve congestion. PJM’s regional grid and market operations produce annual savings of$2.8 billion to $3.1 billion. For the latest news about PJM, visit PJM Inside Lines at insidelines.pjm.com.
Ahmed Ali Al-Ebrahim, a Bahraini National, is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GCC Interconnection Authority (GCCIA), in charge of the 400kV super-grid backbone interconnecting the six national grids of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait comprising around 120 GW of installed capacity. He has been with GCCIA for 14 years. He has 34 years of experience in power systems, electric grids and infrastructure operation and planning, previously working as CEO of Sintegro International, and earlier as Manager of Operations in the Ministry of Electricity Bahrain.
Ahmed holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Power Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin – USA in 1986, an M.Sc. in Electrical Power Engineering from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland in 1999, and an MBA from DePaul University USA in 2003. He also completed the Gulf Executive Development Program II with Darden Business School – University of Virginia – USA in 2001.
He is a Board Member of the GCC Electrical Testing Lab company, Board member and Technical Committee Chairman of GCC Cigre, Board Member of the Association of Power Exchanges (APEx), Vice President of Very Large Grid Operators Organization (GO15), and has authored / co-authored around 30 papers in the field of electricity systems and markets for GCC and the region.
Piotr Listwoń has extensive experience in managing trading and clearing operations on commodity forward markets, the financial instruments market as well as for international transactions carried out as part of the market coupling of the European electricity markets. He has been associated with the TGE Group since 2008, where he was initially involved in efforts aimed at launching the operations the Warsaw Commodity Clearing House (IRGiT) and led the implementation of an advanced payment system in IRGiT. In the years 2013-2018 he was Director of Clearing and Settlement Department and Director of International Cooperation Development in IRGiT. At that time, he also represented the Company at the general meetings of EACH (European Association of CCP Clearing Houses).
Since April 2018, he has served Vice President of the Management Board of TGE, where he is responsible for the operational activity of the Exchange and product development. He supervised, among other things, the launch of the European Intraday Market (XBID) 24/7/365 and the launch of forwards trading on the OTF. Since April 2018, he has served as member of the Supervisory Board of the GPW Foundation and since December 2020 as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of InfoEngine, a subsidiary of the TGE Group. In January 2021, he joined the Management Board of the Association of Power Exchanges (APEx).
Piotr Listwoń graduated from the Faculty of Strategic Management of the Polish Open University (POU/Oxford Brookes University) where he also obtained an MBA degree.
Mr. Omer has over 18 years of professional career and possesses experience in the areas of designing and delivering large complex development projects, strategic business planning, policy and reform undertakings and operational management in electricity business. Since May 2016 he is heading the Strategy and Electricity Competitive Market Development Department at CPPA-G. Before that he was working as Director PMO/Team Lead Business Planning with IRG a subsidiary of Engility Corporation and also worked for an electric utility.
At CPPA (the electricity Market Operator of Pakistan), he is leading the competitive wholesale power market development program. The program is approved by the Federal Government and Regulator and includes legal, policy, regulatory, technical, commercial and institutional actions that spans across the entire electricity value chain. CPPA has been mandated to not only complete its own actions but also facilitate 16 implementation entities to ensure wholesale competitive market becomes operational in Pakistan by February of 2022. He is leading a diverse team, having expertise on Market Design, Market Simulations, Program Management and Business Planning.
At CPPA he is also leading the re-structuring intervention as Project Director. The re-structuring covers creation of an ISO in Pakistan and entails establishment of an Independent entity that will perform functions of System and Market Operator before February 2022.
Before CPPA he worked with International Resources Group (IRG, a subsidiary of Engility) as Director PMO/Team Lead Business Planning on Power Distribution Program. The program focused to improve performance and corporate operations of nine state-owned distribution companies in-particular, the regulator and the power sector in-general through a portfolio of interventions that ranged from technical, commercial, HR, legal, policy, regulatory to operational domains.
Mr. Omer also possess hand on experience in transmission planning, forecasting, strategic planning and deep understanding of generation planning, dispatch studies and models to forecast economic prices, power prices and related studies.
He has a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore and Master’s degree in Business Administration from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). Mr. Omer is also a PMP certified professional and has also earned Board of Director certification.
Lina is responsible for Nord Pool’s services to other Power Exchanges, such as our services to those in Croatia (CROPEX) and Bulgaria (IBEX). Lina has solid experience in the energy industry, and was responsible for building and running the Power Exchange in Lithuania.
As executive vice president and chief operating officer, Lanny Nickell is responsible for SPP’s provision of engineering, operations, and information technology services to members and customers. These services include coordination of reliable power system operations, development, design and administration of energy markets, development of transmission expansion plans needed to facilitate delivery of reliable and affordable energy to consumers, and administration of resource adequacy policies.
Nickell began his career as a planning engineer for Public Service Company of Oklahoma. He joined SPP in 1997 as an operations engineer where he helped establish SPP’s reliability coordination and tariff administration functions. He was promoted to the management team in 1998, became vice president of operations in 2008, vice president of engineering in 2011 and senior vice president of engineering in 2019. Throughout his career, he has served on numerous industry committees developing national and regional electric reliability and energy market policies. Nickell currently serves as staff secretary for SPP’s Markets and Operations Policy Committee and participates in numerous community and philanthropic boards.
Nickell received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tulsa and is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. He is married and has four children.
Ph.D. in International Economics and Finance; Specialist in Financial Institutions; Specialist in Economic Policy, and Lawyer. She has worked in XM, the Colombian Power Independent System and Market Operator since 2008 and currently is the Chief Market Operations. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Colombian Energy Derivatives Exchange, Derivex S.A., a joint iniciative of XM and BVC –the Colombian Stock Exchange-. She also serves as a member for the Board of Directors of CRCC – the Colombian Clearing House- and Sistemas Inteligentes en Red S.A.S., a subsidiary of XM which operates Intelligent Transportation Systems, and for the Association of Power Exchanges -APEx.
Daniel Wragge, Director Political & Regulatory Affairs, works for the European Energy Exchange (EEX) since 2006. Holding a degree in Law and a Master in International Relations & European Affairs, he has studied in Germany, Australia and France. Having been based in Leipzig and Brussels he is now located in Berlin.
Graduated in 1997 from the Political Science Faculty of Istanbul University, Derya Erbay has worked in the field of tax, financial advisory and audit until 2004. She then completed her MSc in Law and Accounting at the London School of Economics & Political Science in 2006.
Derya has followed a career in the banking sector in the field of regulation and compliance. She then joined EPİAŞ in 2017 and has consecutively worked as Supervisor and the Manager of Regulation and Compliance Department. In the meantime, she has actively contributed to the design of new energy markets on EPİAŞ. As of 23 November 2023, Derya was appointed as the Director of Strategy Development.
Rohit Bajaj, Joint Managing Director, works for the Indian Energy Exchange Limited (IEX) since 2014. As a management and business development professional, Rohit has over 30 years of rich and diverse experience garnered in the energy domain, encompassing the conventional and renewable power industry – generation and power market, as well the hydrocarbon industry. Working at the Indian Energy Exchange with a dedicated focus on building India’s power markets, Rohit has been instrumental in conceptualizing and implementing several market segments and contracts including cross-border electricity market, building capacity of the stakeholders besides driving the exponential growth for his company.
Prior to IEX, Rohit worked in leadership roles with conglomerates like Reliance Industries, Lanco Power, Avantha Power where he oversaw various aspects of energy infrastructure projects like power plants, gas pipelines and electricity trading.
Rohit holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management in Marketing and Operations.
Mr. Juan Carlos Olmedo received his B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, and completed an MBA program from Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez and a Certificate in Management from Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, USA. He has over 30 years of experience in the Chilean and Latin-American energy and infrastructure markets with focus on power markets regulation and operation, generation and transmission projects development, renewable energy and systems flexibility and climate change adaptation. Mr. Olmedo is a former executive at AES Gener S.A. where he held the positions of Business Development Manager and Chief Operating Officer. He was board member at AES affiliated companies in Chile and Colombia. Mr. Olmedo has been advisor on energy markets regulation and operation for public and private entities in America, Africa and Europe. He has been founder of renewable energy startups and leaded energy innovation initiatives. He is a former President and Board member at the CDEC SIC in Chile, Board member for renewable energy companies, and international consultant for energy markets. Mr. Olmedo is Professor for the Master program on Energy Economics at Universidad Santa Maria, and is currently President of the Board of Directors at Coordinador Electrico Nacional, the Chilean’s Independent Electric System Operator.
John’s involvement in Transpower’s role as system and market operator dates back to the inception of New Zealand’s locational marginal pricing electricity market 25 years ago. He is currently Executive General Manager Grid Development having also held several executive roles within the System Operation function. He has previously served on the APEx Board.
Ante Mikulic is the Chief Executive Officer of Croatian Power Exchange with 10+ years of experience in Power Exchange business. Ante has been involved in the setup of Day Ahead and Intraday Markets in Croatia, Market Coupling Projects, Setup of Croatian Power Futures, Croatian Guarantees of Origin Auctions and introduction of 15 MTU and Intraday Auctions. As part of the EU Market Coupling Steering Committee he is involved in the supervision of operation and development of EU Single Day Ahead and Single Intraday Coupled Markets.