IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v37y2009i9p3681-3692.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Market power in the Nordic electricity wholesale market: A survey of the empirical evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Fridolfsson, Sven-Olof
  • Tangerås, Thomas P.

Abstract

We review the recent empirical research assessing market power on the Nordic wholesale market for electricity, Nord Pool. The studies find no evidence of systematic exploitation of system level market power on Nord Pool. Local market power arising from transmission constraints seems to be more problematic in some price areas across the Nordic countries. Market power can manifest itself in a number of ways that have so far escaped empirical scrutiny. We discuss investment incentives, vertical integration and buyer power, as well as withholding of base-load (nuclear) capacity.

Suggested Citation

  • Fridolfsson, Sven-Olof & Tangerås, Thomas P., 2009. "Market power in the Nordic electricity wholesale market: A survey of the empirical evidence," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 3681-3692, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:37:y:2009:i:9:p:3681-3692
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4215(09)00283-3
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steen, Frode & Salvanes, Kjell G., 1999. "Testing for market power using a dynamic oligopoly model," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 147-177, February.
    2. James B. Bushnell & Erin T. Mansur & Celeste Saravia, 2008. "Vertical Arrangements, Market Structure, and Competition: An Analysis of Restructured US Electricity Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(1), pages 237-266, March.
    3. Dixit, Avinash, 1980. "The Role of Investment in Entry-Deterrence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(357), pages 95-106, March.
    4. Bresnahan, Timothy F., 1982. "The oligopoly solution concept is identified," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 10(1-2), pages 87-92.
    5. Nils-Henrik M. von der Fehr & Petter Vegard Hansen, 2010. "Electricity Retailing in Norway," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 25-46.
    6. 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.
    7. David Genesove & Wallace P. Mullin, 1998. "Testing Static Oligopoly Models: Conduct and Cost in the Sugar Industry, 1890-1914," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 29(2), pages 355-377, Summer.
    8. Dae‐Wook Kim & Christopher R. Knittel, 2006. "Biases In Static Oligopoly Models? Evidence From The California Electricity Market," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 451-470, December.
    9. In-Koo Cho & Hyunsook Kim, 2007. "Market Power and Network Constraint in a Deregulated Electricity Market," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 1-34.
    10. Paul L. Joskow, 2008. "Lessons Learned from Electricity Market Liberalization," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Special I), pages 9-42.
    11. Jostein Skaar & Lars Sørgard, 2006. "Temporary Bottlenecks, Hydropower and Acquisitions," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 108(3), pages 481-497, October.
    12. Hjalmarsson, Erik, 2000. "Nord Pool: A Power Market Without Market Power," Working Papers in Economics 28, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    13. Karen Clay & Werner Troesken, 2003. "Further Tests of Static Oligopoly Models: Whiskey, 1882–1898," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 151-166, June.
    14. Erin T. Mansur, 2008. "Measuring Welfare in Restructured Electricity Markets," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(2), pages 369-386, May.
    15. Catherine D. Wolfram, 1999. "Measuring Duopoly Power in the British Electricity Spot Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(4), pages 805-826, September.
    16. Lau, Lawrence J., 1982. "On identifying the degree of competitiveness from industry price and output data," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 10(1-2), pages 93-99.
    17. Paul Twomey & Richard Green & Karsten Neuhoff & David Newbery, 2005. "A Review of the Monitoring of Market Power: The Possible Roles of TSOs in Monitoring for Market Power Issues in Congested Transmission Systems," Working Papers 0502, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research.
    18. Severin Borenstein & James B. Bushnell & Frank A. Wolak, 2002. "Measuring Market Inefficiencies in California's Restructured Wholesale Electricity Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1376-1405, December.
    19. Frank A. Wolak, 2003. "Measuring Unilateral Market Power in Wholesale Electricity Markets: The California Market, 1998–2000," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 425-430, May.
    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. Gianfreda, Angelica & Grossi, Luigi, 2012. "Forecasting Italian electricity zonal prices with exogenous variables," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 2228-2239.
    2. Liu, Zhen & Zhang, Xiliang & Lieu, Jenny, 2010. "Design of the incentive mechanism in electricity auction market based on the signaling game theory," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 1813-1819.
    3. Di Cosmo, Valeria & Lynch, Muireann Á., 2016. "Competition and the single electricity market: Which lessons for Ireland?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 40-47.
    4. Sven-Olof Fridolfsson and Thomas P. Tangeras, 2015. "Nuclear Capacity Auctions," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    5. Sherzod Tashpulatov & Lubomir Lizal, 2012. "Can Producers Apply a Capacity Cutting Strategy to Increase Prices? The Case of the England and Wales Electricity Market," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp465, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    6. Tsybina, Eve & Moreno-Cruz, Juan & Tereshin, Alexey, 2019. "Liberalisation lowers primary energy efficiency: Evidence from twin power systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 423-435.
    7. Vítor Marques & Adelino Fortunato & Isabel Soares, 2011. "Application of a structural model to a wholesale electricity market: The Spanish market from January 1999 to June 2007," GEMF Working Papers 2011-02, GEMF, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra.
    8. Nielsen, Steffen & Sorknæs, Peter & Østergaard, Poul Alberg, 2011. "Electricity market auction settings in a future Danish electricity system with a high penetration of renewable energy sources – A comparison of marginal pricing and pay-as-bid," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 4434-4444.
    9. Niklas, Rudholm, 2015. "Pricing in the Swedish Retail Market for Electricity," HUI Working Papers 113, HUI Research.
    10. Egil Ferkingstad & Anders L{o}land & Mathilde Wilhelmsen, 2011. "Causal modeling and inference for electricity markets," Papers 1110.5429, arXiv.org.
    11. Sirin, Selahattin Murat & Erten, Ibrahim, 2022. "Price spikes, temporary price caps, and welfare effects of regulatory interventions on wholesale electricity markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    12. Sara Fogelberg and Ewa Lazarczyk, 2019. "Strategic Withholding through Production Failures," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 5).
    13. 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.
    14. Štefan Bojnec & Alan Križaj, 2021. "Electricity Markets during the Liberalization: The Case of a European Union Country," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-21, July.
    15. 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.
    16. repec:ers:journl:v:xv:y:2012:i:sie:p:65-108 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Vítor Marques & Isabel Soares & Adelino Fortunato, 2012. "Application of a Structural Model to the Spanish Electricity Wholesale Market," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 65-108.
    18. Petr Spodniak & Mikael Collan & Mari Makkonen, 2017. "On Long-Term Transmission Rights in the Nordic Electricity Markets," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-19, March.
    19. Ferkingstad, Egil & Løland, Anders & Wilhelmsen, Mathilde, 2011. "Causal modeling and inference for electricity markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 404-412, May.
    20. Söderholm, Patrik & Wårell, Linda, 2011. "Market opening and third party access in district heating networks," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 742-752, February.
    21. Macuchova, Zuzana & Rudholm, Niklas & Tang, Aili, 2014. "Firm growth in the Swedish energy sector: Will large firms become even more dominant?," HUI Working Papers 104, HUI Research.
    22. Egil Ferkingstad & Anders L{o}land, 2014. "Coping with area price risk in electricity markets: Forecasting Contracts for Difference in the Nordic power market," Papers 1406.6862, arXiv.org.

    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. Rodrigo Zeidan & Marcelo Resende, 2009. "Measuring Market Conduct in the Brazilian Cement Industry: A Dynamic Econometric Investigation," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 34(3), pages 231-244, May.
    2. Graf, Christoph & Wozabal, David, 2013. "Measuring competitiveness of the EPEX spot market for electricity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 948-958.
    3. Vítor Marques & Isabel Soares & Adelino Fortunato, 2012. "Application of a Structural Model to the Spanish Electricity Wholesale Market," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 65-108.
    4. David P. Brown & Derek E. H. Olmstead, 2017. "Measuring market power and the efficiency of Alberta's restructured electricity market: An energy-only market design," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 50(3), pages 838-870, August.
    5. repec:ers:journl:v:xv:y:2012:i:sie:p:65-108 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Ali Hortaçsu & Steven L. Puller, 2008. "Understanding strategic bidding in multi‐unit auctions: a case study of the Texas electricity spot market," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 39(1), pages 86-114, March.
    7. Erik Lundin, 2021. "Market Power and Joint Ownership: Evidence from Nuclear Plants in Sweden," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(3), pages 485-536, September.
    8. Victor F. Moutinho & António C. Moreira & João Paulo C. Bento, 2018. "Strategic decisions on bilateral bidding behavior: evidence from a wholesale electricity market," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 1353-1387, May.
    9. Mikael Bask & Jens Lundgren & Niklas Rudholm, 2009. "Market power in the expanding Nordic power market," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(9), pages 1035-1043.
    10. Luis Orea & Jevgenijs Steinbuks, 2018. "Estimating Market Power In Homogenous Product Markets Using A Composed Error Model: Application To The California Electricity Market," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(2), pages 1296-1321, April.
    11. Natalia Fabra & Mar Reguant, 2014. "Pass-Through of Emissions Costs in Electricity Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(9), pages 2872-2899, September.
    12. Lundin, Erik & Tangerås, Thomas P., 2020. "Cournot competition in wholesale electricity markets: The Nordic power exchange, Nord Pool," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    13. Dae‐Wook Kim & Christopher R. Knittel, 2006. "Biases In Static Oligopoly Models? Evidence From The California Electricity Market," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 451-470, December.
    14. Lewis Evans & Graeme Guthrie, 2009. "How Options Provided by Storage Affect Electricity Prices," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 75(3), pages 681-702, January.
    15. 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.
    16. Grossi, Luigi & Heim, Sven & Waterson, Michael, 2014. "A vision of the European energy future? The impact of the German response to the Fukushima earthquake," ZEW Discussion Papers 14-051, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    17. Dae-Wook Kim & Christopher R. Knittel, 2004. "Biases in Static Oligopoly Models? Evidence from the California Electricity Market," NBER Working Papers 10895, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Chiara Lo Prete and Benjamin F. Hobbs, 2015. "Market power in power markets: an analysis of residual demand curves in Californias day-ahead energy market (1998-2000)," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    19. 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.
    20. Meredith Fowlie, 2008. "Incomplete Environmental Regulation, Imperfect Competition, and Emissions Leakage," NBER Working Papers 14421, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Kenneth Hendricks & R. Preston Mcafee, 2010. "A Theory Of Bilateral Oligopoly," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(2), pages 391-414, April.

    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:37:y:2009:i:9:p:3681-3692. 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.