IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/sjecst/v157y2021i1d10.1186_s41937-021-00074-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The future of Swiss hydropower: how to distribute the risk and the profits?

Author

Listed:
  • Mirjam Kosch

    (ZHAW
    Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Telegrafenberg)

  • Regina Betz

    (ZHAW)

  • Thomas Geissmann

    (ZHAW)

  • Moritz Schillinger

    (University of Basel)

  • Hannes Weigt

    (University of Basel)

Abstract

Low electricity prices put economic pressure on hydropower companies. A more flexible water fee design can counteract this pressure and support hydropower companies during times when market revenues are low. However, this comes at the cost of lower revenues for resource owners. Using a sample of cost data for 62 companies and revenue data derived from an electricity market model, we have quantified this trade-off for the case of Switzerland. We found that electricity market price developments dominate changes in water fees and that for the profitability of hydropower, electricity prices are more important than water fee levels. However, with electricity prices of around CHF 40 per MWh, water fees can make the difference between profit and loss. Therefore, while flexible water fee regimes shift the market risk from producers to resource owners to some extent, the extent of this risk shift depends on the detailed design of the flexible regime.

Suggested Citation

  • Mirjam Kosch & Regina Betz & Thomas Geissmann & Moritz Schillinger & Hannes Weigt, 2021. "The future of Swiss hydropower: how to distribute the risk and the profits?," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 157(1), pages 1-17, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sjecst:v:157:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1186_s41937-021-00074-0
    DOI: 10.1186/s41937-021-00074-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s41937-021-00074-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s41937-021-00074-0?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Banfi, Silvia & Filippini, Massimo & Mueller, Adrian, 2005. "An estimation of the Swiss hydropower rent," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 927-937, May.
    2. Massimo Filippini & Thomas Geissmann & William H. Greene, 2018. "Persistent and transient cost efficiency—an application to the Swiss hydropower sector," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 65-77, February.
    3. Banfi, Silvia & Filippini, Massimo, 2010. "Resource rent taxation and benchmarking--A new perspective for the Swiss hydropower sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2302-2308, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Gregor Schwerhoff & Ottmar Edenhofer & Marc Fleurbaey, 2020. "Taxation Of Economic Rents," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 398-423, April.
    2. Werner Hediger, 2018. "The Corporate Social Responsibility of Hydropower Companies in Alpine Regions—Theory and Policy Recommendations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-20, October.
    3. Massarutto, Antonio & Pontoni, Federico, 2015. "Rent seizing and environmental concerns: A parametric valuation of the Italian hydropower sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 31-40.
    4. Chaves, J. P. & Cossent, R. & Gómez San Román, T. & Linares, P. & Rivier, M., 2023. "An assessment of the European electricity market reform options and a pragmatic proposal," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2325, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    5. Alberto Gago & Xavier Labandeira & Xiral López Otero, 2014. "A Panorama on Energy Taxes and Green Tax Reforms," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 208(1), pages 145-190, March.
    6. Banfi, Silvia & Filippini, Massimo, 2010. "Resource rent taxation and benchmarking--A new perspective for the Swiss hydropower sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2302-2308, May.
    7. Baños-Pino, José F. & Boto-García, David & Zapico, Emma, 2021. "Persistence and dynamics in the efficiency of toll motorways: The Spanish case," Efficiency Series Papers 2021/03, University of Oviedo, Department of Economics, Oviedo Efficiency Group (OEG).
    8. Magambo, Isaiah & Dikgang, Johane & Gelo, Dambala & Tregenna, Fiona, 2021. "Environmental and Technical Efficiency in Large Gold Mines in Developing Countries," MPRA Paper 108068, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Pontus Mattsson & Jonas Månsson & William H. Greene, 2020. "TFP change and its components for Swedish manufacturing firms during the 2008–2009 financial crisis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 79-93, February.
    10. Bernstein, David H., 2020. "An updated assessment of technical efficiency and returns to scale for U.S. electric power plants," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    11. Marvin A. Titus & Adriana Vamosiu & Shannon Hayes Buenaflor & Casey Maliszewski Lukszo, 2021. "Persistent Cost Efficiency at Public Community Colleges in the US: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 62(8), pages 1168-1197, December.
    12. Mirnezami, Seyed Reza, 2014. "Electricity inequality in Canada: Should pricing reforms eliminate subsidies to encourage efficient usage?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 36-43.
    13. Silvia Banfi & Massimo Filippini & Cornelia Luchsinger, 2004. "Resource Rent Taxation – A New Perspective for the (Swiss) Hydropower Sector," CEPE Working paper series 04-34, CEPE Center for Energy Policy and Economics, ETH Zurich.
    14. Wang, Yongpei & Yan, Weilong & Zhuang, Shangwen & Zhang, Qian, 2019. "Competition or complementarity ? The hydropower and thermal power nexus in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 531-541.
    15. Maziotis, Alexandros & Molinos-Senante, Maria, 2022. "The impact of model specification and environmental variables on measuring the overall technical efficiency of water and sewerage services: Evidence from Chile," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 191-198.
    16. Muller, Adrian, 2007. "How to make the clean development mechanism sustainable--The potential of rent extraction," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 3203-3212, June.
    17. Iordanis Parikoglou & Grigorios Emvalomatis & Fiona Thorne, 2022. "Precision livestock agriculture and productive efficiency: The case of milk recording in Ireland," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(S1), pages 109-120, November.
    18. Priyanka Majumder & Mrinmoy Majumder & Apu Kumar Saha & Soumitra Nath, 2020. "Selection of features for analysis of reliability of performance in hydropower plants: a multi-criteria decision making approach," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 3239-3265, April.
    19. Massimo Filippini & Thomas Geissmann & William H. Greene, 2018. "Persistent and transient cost efficiency—an application to the Swiss hydropower sector," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 65-77, February.
    20. Garcia, Luis & Laepple, Doris & Dillon, Emma & Thorne, Fiona, 2020. "The role of hired labor in transient and persistent technical efficiency on Irish dairy farms," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304395, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    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:spr:sjecst:v:157:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1186_s41937-021-00074-0. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.