Patent ID: 7085739

Claim:
A method of facilitating, managing and coordinating operation of a competitive marketplace for an energy system comprising generating units using a communication network, the method comprising the steps of: (a) collecting for a predetermined time interval supply side bids for quantity and price of energy services from a plurality of energy services providers over the communication network and collecting demand side bids for quantity of energy services from a plurality of energy services consumers over the communication network; (b) receiving at least one real time condition comprising data related to at least one of the generating units for the predetermined time interval that is different from at least one quantity of the supply side bids or quantity of the demand side bids; (c) arranging, according to price, the supply side bids from the energy service providers that dispatched energy services for the predetermined interval based on the real time condition; (d) electronically calculating a clearing price for the dispatched energy services regardless of location in the energy system for the predetermined time interval, the calculating of the clearing price being performed after dispatching the energy services in order to account for the real time condition, wherein the clearing price is a price for a supply side bid arranged in step (c) at which quantities for supply side bids equals the energy services dispatched to the consumers, the clearing price being equal for the energy services dispatched to all consumers that received energy services; and (e) calculating settlement information based upon the clearing price calculated in step (d).