IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v102y2017icp210-221.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strategic capacity withholding through failures in the German-Austrian electricity market

Author

Listed:
  • Bergler, Julian
  • Heim, Sven
  • Hüschelrath, Kai

Abstract

In electricity day-ahead markets organized as uniform price auction, a small reduction in supply in times of high demand can cause substantial increases in price. We use a unique data set of failures of generation capacity in the German-Austrian electricity market to investigate the relationship between electricity spot prices and generation failures. Differentiating between strategic and non-strategic failures, we find a positive impact of prices on non-usable marginal generation capacity for strategic failures only. Our empirical analysis therefore provides evidence for the existence of strategic capacity withholding through failures suggesting further monitoring efforts by public authorities to effectively reduce the likelihood of such abuses of a dominant position.

Suggested Citation

  • Bergler, Julian & Heim, Sven & Hüschelrath, Kai, 2017. "Strategic capacity withholding through failures in the German-Austrian electricity market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 210-221.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:102:y:2017:i:c:p:210-221
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2016.12.017
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421516306735
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2016.12.017?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joanne Evans & Richard Green, 2003. "Why did British electricity prices fall after 1998?," Working Papers EP26, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    2. Robinson, Peter M, 1988. "Root- N-Consistent Semiparametric Regression," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(4), pages 931-954, July.
    3. Kahn, Alfred E. & Cramton, Peter C. & Porter, Robert H. & Tabors, Richard D., 2001. "Uniform Pricing or Pay-as-Bid Pricing: A Dilemma for California and Beyond," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 14(6), pages 70-79, July.
    4. John Kwoka & Vladlena Sabodash, 2011. "Price Spikes in Energy Markets: “Business by Usual Methods” or Strategic Withholding?," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 38(3), pages 285-310, May.
    5. Richard W. Blundell & James L. Powell, 2004. "Endogeneity in Semiparametric Binary Response Models," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 71(3), pages 655-679.
    6. Heim, Sven & Götz, Georg, 2021. "Do Pay-As-Bid Auctions Favor Collusion? Evidence from Germany's market for reserve power," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    7. Andrews,Donald W. K. & Stock,James H. (ed.), 2005. "Identification and Inference for Econometric Models," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521844413.
    8. Emmanuel Dechenaux & Dan Kovenock, 2007. "Tacit collusion and capacity withholding in repeated uniform price auctions," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 38(4), pages 1044-1069, December.
    9. Frank A. Wolak & Robert H. Patrick, 2001. "The Impact of Market Rules and Market Structure on the Price Determination Process in the England and Wales Electricity Market," NBER Working Papers 8248, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Sara Fogelberg and Ewa Lazarczyk, 2019. "Strategic Withholding through Production Failures," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 5).
    11. Cramton, Peter & Stoft, Steven, 2007. "Why We Need to Stick with Uniform-Price Auctions in Electricity Markets," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 26-37.
    12. Cabral, Luis, 2002. "The California energy crisis," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 335-339, August.
    13. Grant R. McDermott & Øivind A. Nilse, 2014. "Electricity Prices, River Temperatures, and Cooling Water Scarcity," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 90(1), pages 131-148.
    14. David M. Newbery, 1995. "Power Markets and Market Power," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 39-66.
    15. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    16. Paul L. Joskow & Edward Kohn, 2002. "A Quantitative Analysis of Pricing Behavior in California's Wholesale Electricity Market During Summer 2000," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 1-35.
    17. Catherine D. Wolfram, 1998. "Strategic Bidding in a Multiunit Auction: An Empirical Analysis of Bids to Supply Electricity in England and Wales," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 29(4), pages 703-725, Winter.
    18. J. M. C. Santos Silva & Silvana Tenreyro, 2011. "poisson: Some convergence issues," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 11(2), pages 215-225, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kenis, Michiel & Höschle, Hanspeter & Bruninx, Kenneth, 2022. "Strategic bidding of wind power producers in electricity markets in presence of information sharing," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    2. Duso, Tomaso & Szücs, Florian & Böckers, Veit, 2020. "Abuse of dominance and antitrust enforcement in the German electricity market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    3. Bataille, Marc & Bodnar, Olivia & Steinmetz, Alexander & Thorwarth, Susanne, 2019. "Screening instruments for monitoring market power: The return on withholding capacity index (RWC)," DICE Discussion Papers 311, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    4. Karol Tucki & Olga Orynycz & Andrzej Wasiak & Antoni Świć & Wojciech Dybaś, 2019. "Capacity Market Implementation in Poland: Analysis of a Survey on Consequences for the Electricity Market and for Energy Management," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-16, March.
    5. Bjørndal, Endre & Bjørndal, Mette Helene & Coniglio, Stefano & Körner, Marc-Fabian & Leinauer, Christina & Weibelzahl, Martin, 2023. "Energy storage operation and electricity market design: On the market power of monopolistic storage operators," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 307(2), pages 887-909.
    6. Bataille, Marc & Bodnar, Olivia & Steinmetz, Alexander & Thorwarth, Susanne, 2019. "Screening instruments for monitoring market power — The Return on Withholding Capacity Index (RWC)," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 227-237.
    7. Pizarro-Irizar, Cristina, 2023. "Is it all about supply? Demand-side effects on the Spanish electricity market following Covid-19 lockdown policies," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    8. Leonardo Madio & Aldo Pignataro, 2022. "Collusion sustainability with a capacity constrained firm," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0295, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
    9. Bo Sun & Siyuan Cheng & Jingdong Xie & Xin Sun, 2022. "Identification of Generators’ Economic Withholding Behavior Based on a SCAD-Logit Model in Electricity Spot Market," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-23, June.
    10. Valitov, Niyaz & Maier, Andreas, 2020. "Asymmetric information in the German intraday electricity market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    11. N. M. Rozanova, 2021. "Methodological Issues of Modern Competition Policy," Studies on Russian Economic Development, Springer, vol. 32(5), pages 492-498, September.
    12. Leonardo Madio & Aldo Pignataro, 2022. "Collusion Sustainability with a Capacity Constrained Firm," CESifo Working Paper Series 10170, CESifo.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heim, Sven & Götz, Georg, 2021. "Do Pay-As-Bid Auctions Favor Collusion? Evidence from Germany's market for reserve power," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    2. Grossi, Luigi & Heim, Sven & Waterson, Michael, 2017. "The impact of the German response to the Fukushima earthquake," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 450-465.
    3. Sherzod N. Tashpulatov, 2018. "The Impact of Behavioral and Structural Remedies on Electricity Prices: The Case of the England and Wales Electricity Market," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-24, December.
    4. Lízal, Lubomír M. & Tashpulatov, Sherzod N., 2014. "Do producers apply a capacity cutting strategy to increase prices? The case of the England and Wales electricity market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 114-124.
    5. Tashpulatov, Sherzod N., 2015. "Analysis of electricity industry liberalization in Great Britain: How did the bidding behavior of electricity producers change?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 24-34.
    6. Leonardo Madio & Aldo Pignataro, 2022. "Collusion Sustainability with a Capacity Constrained Firm," CESifo Working Paper Series 10170, CESifo.
    7. Fabra, Natalia & Toro, Juan, 2005. "Price wars and collusion in the Spanish electricity market," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 23(3-4), pages 155-181, April.
    8. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/3vl5fe4i569nbr005tctlc8ll5 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Crawford, Gregory S. & Crespo, Joseph & Tauchen, Helen, 2007. "Bidding asymmetries in multi-unit auctions: Implications of bid function equilibria in the British spot market for electricity," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 1233-1268, December.
    10. Erin T. Mansur, 2007. "Do Oligopolists Pollute Less? Evidence From A Restructured Electricity Market," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 661-689, December.
    11. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    12. Paul Klemperer, 2007. "Bidding Markets," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 1-47.
    13. Murtazashvili, Irina & Wooldridge, Jeffrey M., 2016. "A control function approach to estimating switching regression models with endogenous explanatory variables and endogenous switching," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 190(2), pages 252-266.
    14. Jochmans, Koen, 2015. "Multiplicative-error models with sample selection," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 184(2), pages 315-327.
    15. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3vl5fe4i569nbr005tctlc8ll5 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Koen Jochmans, 2013. "Pairwise‐comparison estimation with non‐parametric controls," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 16(3), pages 340-372, October.
    17. Holmberg, Pär & Newbery, David, 2010. "The supply function equilibrium and its policy implications for wholesale electricity auctions," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 209-226, December.
    18. Sara Fogelberg and Ewa Lazarczyk, 2019. "Strategic Withholding through Production Failures," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 5).
    19. Bataille, Marc & Bodnar, Olivia & Steinmetz, Alexander & Thorwarth, Susanne, 2019. "Screening instruments for monitoring market power: The return on withholding capacity index (RWC)," DICE Discussion Papers 311, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    20. Bataille, Marc & Bodnar, Olivia & Steinmetz, Alexander & Thorwarth, Susanne, 2019. "Screening instruments for monitoring market power — The Return on Withholding Capacity Index (RWC)," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 227-237.
    21. Leonardo Madio & Aldo Pignataro, 2022. "Collusion sustainability with a capacity constrained firm," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0295, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
    22. David McAdams & Giuseppe Lopomo & Leslie Marx & Brian Murray, "undated". "Carbon Allowance Auction Design: An Assessment of Options for the U.S," Working Papers 10-64, Duke University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    L94; L12; M21; Market power; Auctions; Electricity; Withholding;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
    • L12 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Monopoly; Monopolization Strategies
    • L41 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices
    • K21 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Antitrust Law

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:102:y:2017:i:c:p:210-221. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.