Birmingham University
Power Trader was run for students at Birmingham University.
The Heuristic Games team have designed and run training games for over 20 years,
engaging business, government and academic audiences in unique learning experiences.
Power Trader
Power Trader is the unique one-day workshop that puts you in charge of your own energy company…
Now available for online delivery or face to face format bespoke for each client. Also available on a pay to play basis.
AIM OF THE GAME
The aim of the workshop is to run your electricity company in a way that keeps your customers’ lights on, maximises profit and minimises carbon emissions.
You will trade power with other teams over five rounds, simulating both seasonal variations in the system and the longer-term strategic challenge of achieving net zero. This requires you to develop a strategy for growing your portfolio in a competitive market, as well as responding to changing customer demand and policy shifts.
Delivered for hundreds of participants in person over the last ten years, the game is now available as an individual pay-to-play experience or an online workshop with your peers.
WHO IS IT FOR?
Power Trader is perfect for a broad range of audiences. Including individuals from the following organisations:
Utilities
Energy project and technology developers
Energy consultants
Policy makers or strategists engaged in electricity markets
Academics
Masters and PhD students
Research councils
Regulatory organisations
National grid and DNOs
Industry associations
Professional institutions
WHAT WILL YOU GAIN?
- An understanding of how electricity markets work: Power Trader creates a fun, safe place to engage in real-time strategy explore the issues faced in transforming the energy system
- Appreciation of multiple electricity system perspectives: Explore challenges faced by policy makers, power producers and strategists in designing the future energy system
- Knowledge curated by our experts: Power Trader is facilitated by experts with 60 years collective experience in electricity systems and includes presentations and other materials you can access after the course
- Learning through doing: Direct immersion in the complexities of energy markets delivers direct, hands-on experience unlike any other training
- Strengthened teamwork skills: Working in team to manage your company helps to develop communication, negotiation, decision making and conflict resolution skills
TRANSPORT PLANNER
Transport Planner is a unique one-day workshop that puts you in the shoes of a transport director...
The Game
- Can you get all of your city’s residents to work in rush hour?
- What solutions will you use to keep commuters happy and maximise your planning success?
- How will you optimise your network and adapt to challenges like air quality and climate change?
Who is the game for?
Transport planners: early/mid/late career
Transport policymakers
Transport research groups
Masters and undergraduate students
Transport technology developers
Transport consultants
Community groups
Anyone with an interest in transport
What are the outcomes?
LEARNING THROUGH DOING: Direct immersion in the complexities of the transport system delivers a hands-on experience unlike any other training
UNDERSTANDING MULTIPLE SCENARIOS: Each team will develop a geographically and historically different city, each taking different decisions and sharing their outcomes, learning from one another
STRENGTHENED TEAM WORKING: Development of communication, negotiation, decision making and conflict resolution skills
A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE: This bespoke game has been crafted by our experts to create an unforgettable day of learning and fun!
Impact!
Impact! is the unique one-day workshop that empowers you to get your research to those that most need it…
Now available for online delivery
The Game
- Which stakeholders most need your work?
- What will you do to engage them and build relationships?
- How will you prioritise and juggle different demands on your time as your research develops?
Who is the game for?
Early career researchers
PhD students
Research consortia
Associations
Energy technology developers
Energy research consultants
What are the outcomes?
LEARNING THROUGH DOING: Hands on experience of developing an impact-based approach, building understanding of how to turn research outputs into tangible outcomes
KNOWLEDGE OF HOW TO ENGAGE MULTIPLE STAKEHOLDERS: Understand the needs of different actors and how to deliver benefits
STRENGTHENED TEAM WORKING: Development of communication, presentation, decision making and strategic thinking skills
A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE: This bespoke game has been crafted by our experts to create an unforgettable day of learning and fun!
Why business Games?
Heuristics have been using business games for many different purposes over the last 20 years.
Our Game are Ideal For
- Training new staff. New and experienced staff can play a business game together, tailored to your market and your organisations interactions to learn how the organisation ticks in a hands-on memorable way.
- Creating a safe environment for learning about new situations. Your organisation may be faced with fresh challenges as its environment changes. A business game is a safe place to make mistakes before they have to be faced for real.
- Providing proving ground for strategy. A game is an ideal tool for strategists and decision-makers to test new strategies or put themselves in their competitors’ shoes, learning to think how they think and understanding their options.
- Developing softer skills. These events are ideal for developing negotiating skills, decision making and conflict resolution. They can be coupled with input from a professional behaviour analyst to help participants learn from their experience.
- Team building event with a purpose. This is an event that can be used for team building, but unlike raft building or paint balling, it will be highly educational for staff as they learn about the market they operate in.
Past Applications of Heuristic Games Include...
- A game for a government department to test changes to regulation before implementation
- A series of games to allow generation, retail and trading staff at a utility appreciate each other’s roles
- A launch event for 150 staff at an energy trading organisation
- An event for an equipment manufacturer to gain understanding by playing in the market of its clients
- A 3-day event for board members and senior management prior to the liberalisation of an energy market
- An event for university research staff to understand the electricity market
- Games within schools to help students appreciate the way electricity is produced and distributed
- A simulation of an auction for certain contracts to understand how competitors might behave
Recent Games
FCDO
Power Trader was delivered as an online game for European embassies.
Energy Research Accelerator
Power Trader Online
Edinburgh University
Power Trader was run for students at the Centre for Doctoral Training in Offshore Renewable Energy at Edinburgh University.
University of Nottingham
Transport Planner was run as a one day workshop for the University of Nottingham Centre for Doctoral Training in Resilient Decarbonised Fuel Energy Systems.
National Grid
Power Trader was run for the National Grid.
University of Nottingham
Power Trader was run for the University of Nottingham.
University of Hull
Power Trader was run for the Renewable Energy MSc course at the University of Hull.
University of Nottingham
Power Trader was run for the Sustainable Hydrogen Centre for Doctoral Training at the University of Nottingham.
Meet the team
Andy Boston
FOUNDER & GAME FACILITATOR
Andy Boston provides energy consulting services through Red Vector Ltd. Andy has more than 30 years experience in the energy industry starting with the nationalised CEGB, through privatisation firstly with PowerGen and thence E.ON, and finally with the Energy Research Partnership.
Over the past 20 years Andy has designed and run games for events of up to 150 people attended by students, lecturers, new staff, middle managers, strategists, traders, senior staff and board members. As well as organising business games his skills include modelling energy markets, developing decarbonisation scenarios and understanding issues around the integration of renewables on to the grid.
Dr Mike Colechin
FOUNDER & GAME FACILITATOR
Dr Mike Colechin is director of Cultivate Innovation Ltd …working with the organisations and individuals who are delivering innovative, low carbon energy solutions.
Prior to setting up Cultivate, Mike was the Energy Technologies Institute’s Partnership Manager, supporting organisations delivering low carbon energy innovation, informing government policy, and building investor and industry confidence in these new approaches.
Mike is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with over 30 years’ experience in the transport and energy sectors, with time spent both as a Combustion Engineer and as a member of E.ON’s R&D Management Team.
Clare Sheffield
GAME FACILITATOR
Clare Sheffield provides advice to policy-makers and the transport industry on evidence-based, analytically driven transport strategy & planning. A social sciences graduate with 20 years experience, she has pioneered creative research and modelling techniques in the transport industry, specialising in road pricing, cycling and behaviour change, and air quality. Clare has delivered seminars at universities across the UK and bespoke training sessions to analysts and planners.
Contact Us
If you would like to discuss pricing or enquire about booking a workshop, please contact the Heuristic Team, we would be happy to help.
