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Efficient pricing of electricity revisited

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  • Mier, Mathias

Abstract

Increasing shares of intermittent renewable energies challenge the dominant way to trade electricity ex-ante in forward, day-ahead, and intraday markets: Coal power plants and consumers cannot react to the stochastic element of renewables, whereas gas turbines can. We use a theoretical model to analyze behavior of final consumers and incentives of perfectly competitive firms to invest in different types of technologies under ex-ante pricing. Curtailed consumers need to get compensated in high of their disruption cost. Coal power firms recover cost. Renewables and gas turbine firms fail. We identify imperfections that arise from the delay in price setting and market clearing. Do real-time prices induce an efficient outcome? Consumers need to get taxed in high of rationing cost. Support is redundant for gas turbine firms, but renewables firms still fail to recover cost because the spatially distributed nature of renewables creates an output risk.

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  • Mier, Mathias, 2021. "Efficient pricing of electricity revisited," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:104:y:2021:i:c:s0140988321004989
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105637
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    Cited by:

    1. Koltsaklis, Nikolaos E. & Knápek, Jaroslav, 2023. "Assessing flexibility options in electricity market clearing," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    2. Mathias Mier, 2023. "European Electricity Prices in Times of Multiple Crises," ifo Working Paper Series 394, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    3. Justus Haucap & Jonathan Meinhof, 2022. "Die Strompreise der Zukunft [Electricity Prices of the Future]," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 102(1), pages 53-60, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Efficient pricing; Market design; Capacity mechanisms; Renewable energies; Supply uncertainty; Consumer behavior;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D41 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Perfect Competition
    • D47 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Market Design
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy
    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
    • L98 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Government Policy

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