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Strategic behavior in the German balancing energy mechanism: incentives, evidence, costs and solutions

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  • Sebastian Just
  • Christoph Weber

Abstract

This paper investigates the incentives market participants have in the German electricity balancing mechanism. Strategic over and undersupply positions are the result of existing stochastic arbitrage opportunities between the spot market and the balancing mechanism. Clear indications for strategic behavior can be observed in aggregate market data. These structural imbalances increase the need for reserve capacity, raise system security concerns, and therefore place significant costs on consumers. The underlying problem is the disconnect between spot market, reserve capacity market and balancing mechanism. Alternative market design options discussed in this paper suggest better alignment between these markets/mechanisms. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

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  • Sebastian Just & Christoph Weber, 2015. "Strategic behavior in the German balancing energy mechanism: incentives, evidence, costs and solutions," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 218-243, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:regeco:v:48:y:2015:i:2:p:218-243
    DOI: 10.1007/s11149-015-9270-6
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Eicke, Anselm & Ruhnau, Oliver & Hirth, Lion, 2021. "Electricity balancing as a market equilibrium," EconStor Preprints 233852, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    2. Siddiqui, Afzal S. & Tanaka, Makoto & Chen, Yihsu, 2019. "Sustainable transmission planning in imperfectly competitive electricity industries: Balancing economic and environmental outcomes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 275(1), pages 208-223.
    3. Duso, Tomaso & Szücs, Florian & Böckers, Veit, 2020. "Abuse of dominance and antitrust enforcement in the German electricity market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    4. Goodarzi, Shadi & Perera, H. Niles & Bunn, Derek, 2019. "The impact of renewable energy forecast errors on imbalance volumes and electricity spot prices," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    5. Teirilä, Juha, 2020. "The value of the nuclear power plant fleet in the German power market under the expansion of fluctuating renewables," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    6. Poplavskaya, Ksenia & Lago, Jesus & Strömer, Stefan & de Vries, Laurens, 2021. "Making the most of short-term flexibility in the balancing market: Opportunities and challenges of voluntary bids in the new balancing market design," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    7. Rintamäki, Tuomas & Siddiqui, Afzal S. & Salo, Ahti, 2020. "Strategic offering of a flexible producer in day-ahead and intraday power markets," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(3), pages 1136-1153.
    8. Pape, Christian, 2018. "The impact of intraday markets on the market value of flexibility — Decomposing effects on profile and the imbalance costs," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 186-201.
    9. Koch, Christopher & Hirth, Lion, 2019. "Short-term electricity trading for system balancing: An empirical analysis of the role of intraday trading in balancing Germany's electricity system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-1.
    10. Kraft, Emil & Russo, Marianna & Keles, Dogan & Bertsch, Valentin, 2023. "Stochastic optimization of trading strategies in sequential electricity markets," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 308(1), pages 400-421.
    11. Poplavskaya, Ksenia & Lago, Jesus & de Vries, Laurens, 2020. "Effect of market design on strategic bidding behavior: Model-based analysis of European electricity balancing markets," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    12. Brijs, Tom & De Jonghe, Cedric & Hobbs, Benjamin F. & Belmans, Ronnie, 2017. "Interactions between the design of short-term electricity markets in the CWE region and power system flexibility," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 36-51.
    13. Hu, Jing & Harmsen, Robert & Crijns-Graus, Wina & Worrell, Ernst & van den Broek, Machteld, 2018. "Identifying barriers to large-scale integration of variable renewable electricity into the electricity market: A literature review of market design," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 2181-2195.
    14. Schwidtal, Jan Marc & Agostini, Marco & Coppo, Massimiliano & Bignucolo, Fabio & Lorenzoni, Arturo, 2023. "Optimized operation of distributed energy resources: The opportunities of value stacking for Power-to-Gas aggregated with PV," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    15. Silva-Rodriguez, Lina & Sanjab, Anibal & Fumagalli, Elena & Virag, Ana & Gibescu, Madeleine, 2022. "Short term wholesale electricity market designs: A review of identified challenges and promising solutions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    16. Lina Silva-Rodriguez & Anibal Sanjab & Elena Fumagalli & Ana Virag & Madeleine Gibescu, 2020. "Short Term Electricity Market Designs: Identified Challenges and Promising Solutions," Papers 2011.04587, arXiv.org.
    17. Rabab Haider & David D'Achiardi & Venkatesh Venkataramanan & Anurag Srivastava & Anjan Bose & Anuradha M. Annaswamy, 2021. "Reinventing the Utility for DERs: A Proposal for a DSO-Centric Retail Electricity Market," Papers 2102.01269, arXiv.org.
    18. Christian Pape, 2017. "The impact of intraday markets on the market value of flexibility–Decomposing effects on profile and the imbalance costs," EWL Working Papers 1711, University of Duisburg-Essen, Chair for Management Science and Energy Economics, revised Dec 2017.
    19. Christopher Koch & Philipp Maskos, 2020. "Passive Balancing Through Intraday Trading: Whether Interactions Between Short-term Trading and Balancing Stabilize Germany s Electricity System," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(2), pages 101-112.
    20. Karl-Martin Ehrhart & Fabian Ocker, 2021. "Design and regulation of balancing power auctions: an integrated market model approach," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 55-73, August.
    21. Lago, Jesus & Poplavskaya, Ksenia & Suryanarayana, Gowri & De Schutter, Bart, 2021. "A market framework for grid balancing support through imbalances trading," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    22. Eicke, Anselm & Ruhnau, Oliver & Hirth, Lion, 2021. "Electricity balancing as a market equilibrium: An instrument-based estimation of supply and demand for imbalance energy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Electricity market design; Balancing mechanism; Reserve capacity; Strategic behavior; L94; Q41; Q47;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q47 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy Forecasting

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