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Market Power and Transmission Congestion in the Italian Electricity Market

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  • Simona Bigerna, Carlo Andrea Bollino and Paolo Polinori

Abstract

Analysis of market power in electricity markets is relevant for understanding the competitive development of the industry's restructuring and liberalization process, but in the existing literature, there is not an adequate consideration of line transmission congestion. The aim of this paper is to propose a new approach to measuring market power in the Italian Power Exchange (IPEX), explicitly considering transmission line congestion. We construct a new measure of the residual demand curve to disentangle unilateral market power from congestion rent for the main Italian generators during the period April 2004 to December 2007. In Italy, this period was one of stable transmission network structure. Following the approach of Wolak (2003, 2009), we measure the unilateral market power with the Lerner index (LI), computed as the inverse of the residual demand elasticity. In conclusion, the correct modeling of the residual demand curve including transmission congestions enables us to compute the zonal LI and therefore more accurately measure the market power when congestion occurs. Our results show that various generators exercise market power only in specific zones. These findings provide deeper understanding of market outcomes in the presence of congestion, suggesting appropriate policy directions for market surveillance and competition regulation.

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  • Simona Bigerna, Carlo Andrea Bollino and Paolo Polinori, 2016. "Market Power and Transmission Congestion in the Italian Electricity Market," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    • Handle: RePEc:aen:journl:ej37-2-polinori
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    3. Lavrutich, Maria & Hagspiel, Verena & Siddiqui, Afzal S., 2023. "Transmission investment under uncertainty: Reconciling private and public incentives," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 304(3), pages 1167-1188.
    4. Ioannidis, Filippos & Kosmidou, Kyriaki & Makridou, Georgia & Andriosopoulos, Kostas, 2019. "Market design of an energy exchange: The case of Greece," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
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    6. Brown, David P. & Eckert, Andrew, 2021. "Analyzing firm behavior in restructured electricity markets: Empirical challenges with a residual demand analysis," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    7. Bigerna, Simona, 2018. "Estimating temperature effects on the Italian electricity market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 257-269.
    8. Bigerna, Simona & Bollino, Carlo Andrea & D'Errico, Maria Chiara & Polinori, Paolo, 2022. "COVID-19 lockdown and market power in the Italian electricity market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    9. Nagy, Roel L.G. & Hagspiel, Verena & Kort, Peter M., 2021. "Green capacity investment under subsidy withdrawal risk," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    10. Simona Bigerna, Carlo Andrea Bollino and Paolo Polinori, 2016. "Renewable Energy and Market Power in the Italian Electricity Market," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Bollino-M).
    11. Gallego, Camilo A., 2022. "Intertemporal effects of imperfect competition through forward contracts in wholesale electricity markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    12. Simona BIGERNA & Carlo Andrea BOLLINO & Maria Chiara D'ERRICO & Paolo POLINORI, 2015. "Competitive Equilibrium in the Italian Wholesale Electricity Market," Working papers of the Department of Economics - University of Perugia (IT) 0017/2015, Università di Perugia, Dipartimento Economia.
    13. Simona Bigerna & Carlo Andrea Bollino & Maria Chiara D’Errico & Paolo Polinori, 2023. "A new design for market power monitoring in the electricity market. A simulation for Italy," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(1), pages 285-317, April.
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    17. Bigerna, Simona & Hagspiel, Verena & Kort, Peter M. & Wen, Xingang, 2023. "How damaging are environmental policy targets in terms of welfare?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 311(1), pages 354-372.
    18. Maria Chiara D?Errico, 2020. "Competition in the Italian electricity market: The unforeseen social welfare losses of reform," ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2020(2), pages 75-91.
    19. Gianfreda, Angelica & Parisio, Lucia & Pelagatti, Matteo, 2018. "A review of balancing costs in Italy before and after RES introduction," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 549-563.
    20. Bigerna, Simona & Wen, Xingang & Hagspiel, Verena & Kort, Peter M., 2019. "Green electricity investments: Environmental target and the optimal subsidy," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 279(2), pages 635-644.
    21. Bigerna, Simona & Bollino, Carlo Andrea & Ciferri, Davide & Polinori, Paolo, 2017. "Renewables diffusion and contagion effect in Italian regional electricity markets: Assessment and policy implications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P1), pages 199-211.
    22. Sapio, Alessandro & Spagnolo, Nicola, 2016. "Price regimes in an energy island: Tacit collusion vs. cost and network explanations," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 157-172.

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