IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cam/camdae/0463.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Electricity transmission: an overview of the current debate

Author

Listed:
  • Brunekreeft, G.
  • Neuhoff, K.
  • Newbery, D.

Abstract

Electricity transmission has emerged as critical for successfully liberalising power markets. This paper surveys the issues currently under discussion and provides a framework for the remaining papers in this issue. We conclude that signalling the efficient location of generation investment might require even a competitive LMP system to be complemented with deep connection charges. Although a Europe-wide LMP system is desirable, it appears politically problematic, so an integrated system of market coupling, possibly evolving by voluntary participation, should have high priority. Merchant investors may be able to increase interconnector capacity, although this is not unproblematic and raises new regulatory issues. A key issue that needs further research is how to better incentivize TSOs, especially with respect to cross-border issues.

Suggested Citation

  • Brunekreeft, G. & Neuhoff, K. & Newbery, D., 2004. "Electricity transmission: an overview of the current debate," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0463, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
  • Handle: RePEc:cam:camdae:0463
    Note: CMI, IO
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/electricity/publications/wp/ep60.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Joskow & Jean Tirole, 2007. "Reliability and competitive electricity markets," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 38(1), pages 60-84, March.
    2. Paul Joskow & Jean Tirole, 2005. "Merchant Transmission Investment," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 233-264, June.
    3. Neuhoff, K., 2003. "Integrating Transmission and Energy Markets Mitigates Market Power," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0310, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    4. Thomas-Olivier Leautier, 2000. "Regulation of an Electric Power Transmission Company," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 61-92.
    5. Richard Gilbert & Neuhoff, K. & Newbery, D., 2002. "Allocating Transmission to Mitigate Market Power in Electricity Networks," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0225, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    6. Brunekreeft, G., 2004. "‘Regulatory Issues in Merchant Transmission Investment’," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0422, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    7. Bushnell, James B. & Stoft, Steven E., 1997. "Improving private incentives for electric grid investment," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1-2), pages 85-108, March.
    8. Gert Brunekreeft & David Newbery, 2006. "Should merchant transmission investment be subject to a must-offer provision?," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 233-260, November.
    9. S. Littlechild, 2004. "Regulated and merchant interconnectors in Australia: SNI and Murraylink revisited," Working Papers EP37, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    10. David Newbery & Tanga McDaniel, 2002. "Auctions and trading in energy markets - an economic analysis," Working Papers EP15, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    11. Glachant, Jean-Michel & Pignon, Virginie, 2005. "Nordic congestion's arrangement as a model for Europe? Physical constraints vs. economic incentives," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 153-162, June.
    12. Neuhoff, K., 2002. "Optimal congestion treatment for bilateral electricity trading," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0214, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    13. Joshua Gans & Stephen King, 2003. "Access Holidays for Network Infrastructure Investment," Agenda - A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics, vol. 10(2), pages 163-178.
    14. Liu, Leslie & Zobian, Assef, 2002. "The Importance of Marginal Loss Pricing in an RTO Environment," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 15(8), pages 40-45, October.
    15. Vogelsang, Ingo, 2001. "Price Regulation for Independent Transmission Companies," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 141-165, September.
    16. Hogan, William W, 1992. "Contract Networks for Electric Power Transmission," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 4(3), pages 211-242, September.
    17. Hogan, William W., 2003. "Transmission Market Design," Working Paper Series rwp03-040, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    18. Glanchant, J-M. & Pignon, V., 2003. "Nordic Electricity Congestion's Arrangement as a Model for Europe: Physical Constraints or Operators' Opportunity," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0313, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    19. Kay, J. A. & Keen, M. J., 1983. "How should commodities be taxed? : Market structure, product heterogeneity and the optimal structure of commodity taxes," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 339-358, September.
    20. Gert Brunekreeft, 2003. "Market-based investment in electricity transmission networks: controllable flow," Working Papers EP29, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    21. Joskow, Paul L & Tirole, Jean, 1999. "Transmission Rights and Market Power on Electric Power Networks I: Financial Rights," CEPR Discussion Papers 2093, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    22. Gert Brunekreeft, 2004. "Regulatory issues in merchant transmission investment," Working Papers EP38, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    23. Roger E. Bohn & Michael C. Caramanis & Fred C. Schweppe, 1984. "Optimal Pricing in Electrical Networks over Space and Time," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(3), pages 360-376, Autumn.
    24. Brunekreeft, Gert, 2004. "Market-based investment in electricity transmission networks: controllable flow," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 269-281, December.
    25. 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.
    26. Brunekreeft, G., 2003. "Market-based Investment in Electricity Transmission Networks: Controllable Flow," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0340, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    27. Tarjei Kristiansen & Juan Rosellón, 2006. "A Merchant Mechanism for Electricity Transmission Expansion," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 167-193, March.
    28. Oliver E. Williamson, 1976. "Franchise Bidding for Natural Monopolies -- in General and with Respect to CATV," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 7(1), pages 73-104, Spring.
    29. Leautier, Thomas-Olivier, 2001. "Transmission Constraints and Imperfect Markets for Power," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 27-54, January.
    30. Paul Joskow & Jean Tirole, 2004. "Competitive Electricity Markets," Working Papers EP53, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    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. Gert Brunekreeft & David Newbery, 2006. "Should merchant transmission investment be subject to a must-offer provision?," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 233-260, November.
    2. Paul Joskow & Jean Tirole, 2005. "Merchant Transmission Investment," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 233-264, June.
    3. Brunekreeft, Gert, 2004. "Market-based investment in electricity transmission networks: controllable flow," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 269-281, December.
    4. Bastian Henze & Charles Noussair & Bert Willems, 2012. "Regulation of network infrastructure investments: an experimental evaluation," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 1-38, August.
    5. Brunekreeft, G., 2004. "‘Regulatory Issues in Merchant Transmission Investment’," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0422, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    6. Brunekreeft, G., 2003. "Market-based Investment in Electricity Transmission Networks: Controllable Flow," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0340, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    7. Thomas-Olivier Léautier & Véronique Thelen, 2009. "Optimal expansion of the power transmission grid: why not?," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 36(2), pages 127-153, October.
    8. Littlechild, Stephen C. & Skerk, Carlos J., 2008. "Transmission expansion in Argentina 2: The Fourth Line revisited," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 1385-1419, July.
    9. Stephen Littlechild, 2012. "Merchant and regulated transmission: theory, evidence and policy," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 308-335, December.
    10. Adrien de Hauteclocque & Vincent Rious, 2008. "Regulatory Uncertainty and Inefficiency for the Development of Merchant Lines in Europe," Post-Print hal-00338296, HAL.
    11. Biggar, Darryl R. & Hesamzadeh, Mohammad Reza, 2022. "An integrated theory of dispatch and hedging in wholesale electric power markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    12. Stephen C. Littlechild & Carlos J. Skerk, 2004. "Regulation of transmission expansion in Argentina Part I: State ownership, reform and the Fourth Line," Working Papers EP61, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    13. Makoto TANAKA, 2005. "Optimal Transmission Capacity under Nodal Pricing and Incentive Regulation for Transco," Discussion papers 05021, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    14. Juan Rosellón, 2009. "Mechanisms for the Optimal Expansion of Electricity Transmission Networks," Chapters, in: Joanne Evans & Lester C. Hunt (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Energy, chapter 24, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. William Hogan & Juan Rosellón & Ingo Vogelsang, 2010. "Toward a combined merchant-regulatory mechanism for electricity transmission expansion," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 113-143, October.
    16. Juan Rosellón, Ingo Vogelsang, and Hannes Weigt, 2012. "Long-run Cost Functions for Electricity Transmission," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    17. Brunekreeft, Gert, 2005. "Regulatory issues in merchant transmission investment," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 175-186, June.
    18. Rosellon, Juan, 2007. "An incentive mechanism for electricity transmission expansion in Mexico," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 3003-3014, May.
    19. Ruderer, Dominik & Zöttl, Gregor, 2018. "Transmission pricing and investment incentives," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 14-30.
    20. Juan Rosellón & Hannes Weigt, 2011. "A Dynamic Incentive Mechanism for Transmission Expansion in Electricity Networks: Theory, Modeling, and Application," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 119-148.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Electricity; Transmission; Regulation; Prices; Merchant Investment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L4 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies
    • L5 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy
    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:cam:camdae:0463. 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: Jake Dyer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/ .

    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.