Skip to content
English
Sign in
Contact us
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

How to Demo the Nrgstream Platform

Lesson Plan

Start with a conversation, ask the customer about their specific interests by asking questions like:

  • What does the company do? What do the attendees do?
  • Which markets are of interest? What data are they interested in?
  • What is their specific use case? What is their goal in engaging with Arcus and the Nrgstream platform?

Always revert to the attendees by prompting them by asking probing questions like:

  • Does that make sense? What do you think of the feature?
  • Do you have any questions about anything I have showed you so far?

Time is of the essence, since you only have about 15 minutes to grab your audiences attention during a 30 minute introductory call. Ideally you can perform Lessons 1 through 3 in 15 minutes or less so you can allow for Q&A and next steps discussion at the end.

Lesson 1: Navigation

One of the most powerful and often overlooked capabilities of the Nrgstream Platform is it's ability to make access to power market data easy. In fact this was our founding principle in the building of Nrgstream.

Through the repurposing of familiar and intuitive navigation features like Tabs to quickly move between features like Dashboards and Maps.

DEMO:

  1. Click on a tab to show the change in function. Ex. Dashboards, Maps.
  2. Click the STREAMS tab

Nrgstream Platform NavigationHOME - provides access to Active Stream Alerts, Bookmarks, Recent Charts, Recent Panels, Recent Dashboards

STREAMS - provides access to Stream Folders

CHARTS -  provides access to custom Charts personalized to the user/account

PANELS - provides access to custom Panels personalized to the user/account

DASHBOARDS - provides access to custom Dashboards personlized to the user/account

MAPS - provides access to market Maps

XTRACTOR - provides access to Extracts personalized to the user/account

ANALYST - provides access to Scenarios based historical market prices for Fixed Price and Point-to-Spread analysis

GENERATION - provides advanced filter based access to EIA/EPA Generation data

ALERTS - provides access to real-time customer Stream Alerts, Market Alerts (Messages), and Events

ASSET AVAILABILITY - provides access to Asset Curtailment Submission

PROFILE - provides access to User Profile

Lesson 2: STREAMS

The Nrgstream Platform STREAMS tab is where users are exposed to the concept of a Stream. Take a minute, now is a good time to define what a Stream is. Simply put, "a Stream is the name we give to Time Series Data.

Nrgstream provides a familiar and intuitive Folder Tree style of navigation that is similar to navigating a folder containing files, but instead of files we have Streams.

Stream folders and sub-folders are categorized and sub-categorized to logically organize the data by Market / Region and/or Commodity / Data Type and so on.

DEMO:

  1. Click Show Filters
  2. Click DATA TYPE and select PRICES, click ISO and select ERCOT 
  3. Click into various folders to reveal the list of Streams. Click on ERCOT POWER > ERC - PRICING > ERC - RMT LMP > ERC - Hubs/Load Zones - RTM LMP

Nrgstream Stream NavigationThe folder and tree provides intuitive categories for the ISO/RTO markets and other data sources. ISO Streams are categorized into subcategories under top level folders. Ex. ERCOT POWER.

Typical subcategories include:

  • Ancillary Services
  • Supply
  • Demand
  • Prices
  • Transmission

 

 

 

 

 

Ex. ERC - HUB_NORTH RTM LMP, ERC - HUB_NORTH is the location and RTM LMP is the data attribute. Message Streams are an exception to this rule.

A typical Stream Data View provides both a chart and table view of the Stream Data. 

Nrgstream Data View-2

DEMO:

  1. Click on ERCOT POWER > ERC - PRICING > ERC - RMT LMP > ERC - Hubs/Load Zones - RTM LMP
  2. Click on ERC - HB_HUBAVG RTM LMP Stream to reveal the hidden Stream Icons below the Stream name. Hover over each of the Stream Icons and explain the functionality of the Stream Icons. Nrgstream Stream Icons-1
  3. Click the Nrgstream Data View Icon to launch the Data View.
  4. Click Select Display Option drop down to revel the Display Option choices.
  5. Click Select Instant Overlay drop down to reveal the Instant Overlay choices.
  6. Select the ERC - HB_HUBAVG DAM LMP Instant Overlay.
  7. Change the date range using the "Rolling Range" (days back, days to) or "Static Range" (from date, to date).
  8. Click DOWNLOAD to download the Stream Data in CSV file format. Open the file.
  9. Click Save Chart as ERCOT HB_HUBAVG RTM v. DAM for later in your demo.

Lesson 3: XTRACTOR / EXCEL ADD-IN & MACRO / REST-API

Now would a good time to discuss how we get data out of Nrgstream. Start by defining what an EXTRACT is. At it's core an Extract is simply a UI enabled method for downloading data. Ex. Download price data for a Hub Price or Supply / Demand. 

DEMO:

  1. From the STREAM tab, drill into the ERCOT POWER folder, select the ERC-PRICING > ERC - RTM LMP > ERC - Hubs/Load Zones
  2. Multi-select a range of Streams for your Extract. Nrgstream Xtractor Multi-Select Streams

  3. Using the top Ribbon Bar, Nrgstream Top Ribbon Bar click Nrgstream Extract Data Button the Extract Data button.
  4. You will automatically be switched to the XTRACTOR Tab and your new Extract will be highlighted in the list of Extracts. Scroll down to reveal your Extract. Mention that Extracts can be run On-demand or Scheduled for recurring download,   Nrgstream Multiple Stream Extract
  5. Run Nrgstream Run Extract Button the Extract and open the resulting CSV file.
  6. From the STREAM tab, drill into the ERCOT POWER folder, select the ERC-PRICING > ERC - RTM LMP > ERC - Hubs/Load Zones
  7. Multi-select the same range of Streams and click the Generate Macro button Nrgstream Extract Data Button from the Top Ribbon Bar. Show the VBA code that is generated. If you are not comfortable with the Excel Macro, Skip to step 11. Add-in.
  8. From the Generate Macro dialogue, Click Copy to Clipboard button, Open Excel, select Blanc Workbook. The select the Developer tab and click Visual Basic button to open the Macro. Open Sheet1 and right-click Paste and scroll through the VBA to show NRGGetData and NRGGetNewData methods. Close the Developer tab. 
  9. Select the View menu, click on Macros to popup the Macro dialogue box Sheet1.NRGGetData_TraderMacro is already selected. Click the Run button. This will insert the data into Sheet1 for the period specified for each Stream contained in the Macro.
  10. Select the View menu again, click on Macros to popup the Macro dialogue box and click Sheet1.NRGGetNewData_TraderMacro and click the Run button to append any new data to the bottom of the columns from the last time NRGGetData was run.
  11. Launch a new workbook and click Add-ins, select an Extract from the list and click Get All Data, next click Get New Data. Mention that each Sheet in the workbook can have an Extract associated with it.
  12. From the STREAM tab, drill into the ERCOT POWER folder, select the ERC-PRICING > ERC - RTM LMP > ERC - Hubs/Load Zones
  13. Multi-select the same range of Streams. This time click the Generate API button Nrgstream Generate API from the Top Ribbon Bar.
  14. Let the attendees know the Nrgstream API will work with the full URL or the Stream Id. Let the audience know we can provide the Nrgstream API documentation and sample code for Python, R, and Power BI, etc.Nrgstream Generate API Output Dialogue-1

Lesson 4: CHARTS

The Nrgstream Platform provides advanced multi-Stream charting capability. Users can quickly graph Price vs. Demand, but not Price vs. Demand vs. Temp. As there are only two Y-axes, the Primary and Secondary Y-axis.

DEMO:

  1. Click the CHART tab, locate the Chart we called ERCOT HB_HUBAVG RTM v. DAM from lesson 2 and click the name to display the Chart to the right in the Nrgstream main window, or double-click to pop-up in new window.
  2. Click the vertical 3 dots icon to the right of the chart name in the chart list and click Select Streams. Open the ERCOT POWER > ERC - Load/Demand folder and select the ERC - Actual System Demand Stream and close the Stream Selector dialogue.
  3. Mention / show the CHARTS, SHARED, and MASTER folders and explain the purpose of each. The CHARTS folder contains the users custom Charts. the SHARED folder contains any Shared Charts for the user' organization, and the MASTER folder contains Master Charts that are maintained by Arcus.

Nrgstream Chart-1

Lesson 5: PANELS

Nrgstream Panels provide a numerical presentation of the Stream Data in a grid/table view. There are three types of Panels, Stream, Regional, and Supersized.

DEMO:

  1. Popup an example of each of the different types of Panels from the MASTER folder.
  2. Stream Panels are fully customizable and may contain any combination of Streams.
  3. Regional Panels, provide a curated view of the Stream data often combining RTM and DAM Stream data into a single Panel.
  4. Supersized are as their name implies, supersized display of a single Stream.

LESSON 6: DASHBOARDS

Nrgstream Dashboards are end-user configurable and a convenient way to display real time key indicators. Dashboards provide a container for your custom Charts and Panels.

DEMO:

  1. Popup an example dashboard from the MASTER folder. This could be a good seg way into your Pwrstream demo.

LESSON 7: MAPS

Nrgstream Maps provide geographical representation of the information. Maps include layers for Price, Load, and Generation. Transmission including Outages and Constraints and Grid topology (Transmission Lines).

DEMO: 

  1. Popup the ERCOT or PJM Map, as these are the most developed. Toggle the different layers on and off.
  2. Hover over a Price Node to display the tooltip information. Click the Price node to display the dialogue Nrgstream Map Price click-through on the RTM, DAM, or Settlement Stream links to popup the Stream View.
  3. Click on a Generation Plant to display the Plant information. Nrgstream Map Generation Plant (a combination of the EPA CEMS database and the Month Generation Stats from the EIA)

Lastly, once you have completed Lesson 3 of your demo, feel free to mix it up a little based on audience feedback. Skip to Lesson 6 or 7 and then go back to 4 and 5 or skip them all together. There really isn't one right way to demo.

Awareness of what is important to your audience is key to showing them the features and data they need to see to move to the next set in the customer journey, the trial.

Have some fun with it!