Notification - April 2004 -
 

Hierarchy Changes for PJM ISO Data

Background Information - Since 2000, LIM has carried real time and day ahead locational marginal pricing (lmp) data, captured from publicly accessible web sites. The data vendor (Pennsylvania Jersey Maryland Independent System Operator) has provided daily update files for the lmp's with hourly values for day ahead and real time basis.

The lmp values were originally provided with information about the zone and the node included in the description. Over time, the PJM ISO provided different text descriptions of the zones, aggregates and nodes depending on the internal system that was used to generate the data at the particular point in history.

LIM attempted to organize the many thousands of lmp nodes and aggregates by zone to make it easier for users to find what they were looking for. However, the use of different abbreviations for the zone names led to the creation of duplicate zones. Over time, nodes were added with slightly different descriptions leading to duplicate node symbols existing with "pockets" of historical data in them.

New lmp nodes being added could not always be issued with MIM symbols automatically because of ambiguity about which "zone" they belonged to. Many aggregates were also not given a zone name in their description. Latterly, PJM has been providing unique "pnodeID's" for each lmp node and we have gone back through the history using the unique pnode ID's to remove any duplicate node symbols.


Changes Made - The changes listed below were carried out by LIM in order to re-organize the PJM lmp data in our server hierarchies. Instead of using zones to organize the nodes and aggregates, we simply used "node point" and "aggregate" as the data categories.


Existing Hierarchy Locations - Lmp data is currently stored in two separate categories, namely:

• Full automation of new relations as long as PJM provides the Pnode ID.
• Duplicate relations have been merged.

Data has already been delivered to customers receiving the current PJM data set so that customers now see both the old hierarchy and the new.


Customer Rollout - Changes are already delivered and the historical data has been reprocessed. We will give customers 3 months with the old data symbols to prepare to change to the new symbols, before switching off the updates to the old symbols. The cut-off date for the old data symbols is August 1, 2004.

If you have any questions about this intended change or its impact, please contact our customer support desk at:
+1.800.546.9646 (U.S) or +44(0)207.553.2639 (Europe) or email: support@lim.com.

 

Announcing Addition of US Geological Survey (USGS) Data

LIM is pleased to announce the addition of USGS mineral data to our core data set. The US Geological Survey contains information gathered by the Mineral Information Team, a group that "canvasses the nonfuel mining and minerals processing industry in the US for data on mineral production, consumption, stocks and shipments." (Quote from the USGS website.)

For more information on the data, please see the USGS website.

The data is located in the following path in the MIM hierarchy:

   TopRelation:Indices:USGeologicalSurvey:Metals

Below is a complete list of the new MIM Symbols and Descriptions:

• USGS.PRIMARY.METALS.LEADNDX  (MII Primary Metals Leading Index)
• USGS.PRIMARY.METALS.COINNDX  (MII Primary Metals Coincident Index)
• USGS.COPPER.LEADNDX  (MII Copper Leading Index)
• USGS.COPPER.COINNDX  (MII Copper Coincident Index)
• USGS.STEEL.LEADNDX  (MII Steel Leading Index)
• USGS.STEEL.COINNDX  (MII Steel Coincident Index)
• USGS.METAL.PRICES.LEADNDX  (MII Leading Index Metal Prices)
• USGS.METAL.PRICES.NDXGRTHRATE  (MII Nonferrous Metals Price Index Growth Rate)
• USGS.METAL.PRODUCTS.INV  (MII Us Nonferrous Metal Products Inventories)
• USGS.METAL.PRODUCTS.INVGRTHRATE  (MII Us Nonferrous Metals Products Inventories Growth Rate)

Note: There is one column (implicit) associated with each data symbol.

The USGS data set is scheduled to be loaded onto your MIM on May 15, 2004.

Changes to Futures Hierarchy Structure

LIM will be changing the MIM hierarchy structure for futures data to organize the futures data by exchange instead of by commodity. Currently, futures data has the following organization in the MIM:

TopRelation:Futures:Currencies
TopRelation:Futures:ETFunds
TopRelation:Futures:Energy
TopRelation:Futures:Equitites
TopRelation:Futures:Financial
TopRelation:Futures:Foods
TopRelation:Futures:Grains
TopRelation:Futures:Industrials
TopRelation:Futures:Meats
TopRelation:Futures:Metals
TopRelation:Futures:MktIndices
TopRelation:Futures:Retired
TopRelation:Futures:options

Futures data will be organized by exchange:

  TopRelation:Futures:EXCHANGENAME

For example, the symbol "NG" will move from:

  TR:Futures:Energy:NG

to

  TR:Futures:Nymex:NG

This change will take effect: June 1, 2004

Customers will not see any difference in symbols or columns, just the parent change in the hierarchy. The only likely impact would be if an XMIM query referred to the entire relation of the data in the old category path or any sub branch of the data. If queries refer directly to symbols, they will not be affected. If you have any questions about this intended change or its impact, please contact our customer support desk at: +1.800.546.9646 (U.S) or +44(0)207.553.2639 (Europe) or email: support@lim.com.