IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Log in (now much improved!) to save this article

The effect of counter-trading on competition in electricity markets

Author Info

Listed author(s):
  • Dijk, Justin
  • Willems, Bert

Abstract

In a competitive electricity market, nodal pricing is the most efficient way to manage congestion. Counter-trading is inefficient as it gives the wrong long term signals for entry and exit of power plants. However, in a non-competitive market, additional entry will improve the competitiveness of the market, and will increase social benefit by reducing price-cost margins. This paper studies whether the potential pro-competitive entry effects could make counter-trading more efficient than nodal pricing. We find that this is unlikely to be the case, and expect counter-trading to have a negative effect on overall welfare. The potential benefits of additional competition (more competitive prices and lower production cost) do not outweigh the distortions (additional investment cost for the entrant, and socialization of the congestion cost to final consumers).

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4215(11)00018-8
Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.

Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Energy Policy.

Volume (Year): 39 (2011)
Issue (Month): 3 (March)
Pages: 1764-1773

as
in new window

Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:39:y:2011:i:3:p:1764-1773
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol

Keywords: Congestion management Counter-trading Market power;

Other versions of this item:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

as
in new window


  1. Kupper, G. & Willems, Bert, 2007. "Arbitrage in Energy Markets : Competing in the Incumbent's Shadow," Discussion Paper 2007-034, Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economic Center.
  2. Stoft, Steven, 1997. "Transmission pricing zones: simple or complex?," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 24-31.
  3. Hogan, William W, 1992. "Contract Networks for Electric Power Transmission," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 4(3), pages 211-242, September.
  4. M. Bjørndal & K. Jørnsten & V. Pignon, 2003. "Congestion management in the Nordic power market - counter purchases and zonal pricing," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, Intersentia, vol. 4(3), pages 271-293, September.
  5. Ventosa, Mariano & Baillo, Alvaro & Ramos, Andres & Rivier, Michel, 2005. "Electricity market modeling trends," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 897-913, May.
  6. Neuhoff, Karsten & Barquin, Julian & Boots, Maroeska G. & Ehrenmann, Andreas & Hobbs, Benjamin F. & Rijkers, Fieke A.M. & Vazquez, Miguel, 2005. "Network-constrained Cournot models of liberalized electricity markets: the devil is in the details," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 495-525, May.
  7. Ehrenmann, Andreas & Smeers, Yves, 2005. "Inefficiencies in European congestion management proposals," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 135-152, June.
  8. Richard Green, 2007. "Nodal pricing of electricity: how much does it cost to get it wrong?," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 125-149, April.
  9. Severin Borenstein & James. Bushnell & Steven Stoft, 2000. "The Competitive Effects of Transmission Capacity in A Deregulated Electricity Industry," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(2), pages 294-325, Summer.
  10. Lijesen, Mark G., 2007. "The real-time price elasticity of electricity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 249-258, March.
  11. Oren, Shmuel S. & Spiller, Pablo T. & Varaiya, Pravin & Wu, Felix, 1995. "Nodal prices and transmission rights: A critical appraisal," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 24-35, April.
  12. Bert Willems & Gerd Kupper, 2010. "Arbitrage in Energy Markets: Price Discrimination under Congestion," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 41-66.
  13. Swinand, Gregory & Scully, Derek & Ffoulkes, Stuart & Kessler, Brian, 2010. "Modeling EU Electricity Market Competition Using the Residual Supply Index," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 23(9), pages 41-50, November.
  14. Green, Richard, 2003. "Failing electricity markets: should we shoot the pools?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 155-167, September.
  15. Richard Gilbert & Karsten Neuhoff & David Newbery, 2004. "Allocating Transmission to Mitigate Market Power in Electricity Markets," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 35(4), pages 691-709, Winter.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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

as
in new window


Cited by:

  1. Georgios Petropoulos & Bert Willems, 2016. "Providing efficient network access to green power generators: A long-term property rights perspective," Working Papers 17317, Bruegel.
  2. Holmberg, Pär & Lazarczyk, Ewa, 2012. "Congestion Management in Electricity Networks: Nodal, Zonal and Discriminatory Pricing," Working Paper Series 915, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
  3. Christine Brandstätt & Gert Brunekreeft & Nele Friedrichsen, 2011. "Improving Investment Coordination in Electricity Networks Through Smart Contracts," Bremen Energy Working Papers 0010, Bremen Energy Research.
  4. Blázquez De Paz, Mario, 2017. "Production or Transmission Investments? A Comparative Analysis," Working Paper Series 1158, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
  5. Friedrich Kunz, 2013. "Improving Congestion Management: How to Facilitate the Integration of Renewable Generation in Germany," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
  6. Han, Jinil & Papavasiliou, Anthony, 2015. "Congestion management through topological corrections: A case study of Central Western Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 470-482.

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Access and download statistics

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:39:y:2011:i:3:p:1764-1773. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Dana Niculescu)

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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

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

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.