IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cam/camdae/1960.html

Capacity mechanisms and the technology mix in competitive electricity markets

Author

Listed:
  • Holmberg, P.
  • Ritz, R.

Abstract

Capacity mechanisms are increasingly used in electricity market design around the world yet their role remains hotly debated. In this paper, we introduce a new benchmark model of a capacity mechanism in a competitive electricity market with many different generation technologies. We consider two policy instruments, a wholesale price cap and a capacity payment, and show which combinations of these instruments induce socially-optimal investment by the market. Changing the price cap or capacity payment affects investment only in peak generation plant, with no equilibrium impact on baseload or mid-merit plant. We obtain a rationale for a capacity mechanism based on the internalization of a system-cost externality – even where the price cap is set at the value of lost load. In extensions, we show how increasing renewables penetration enhances the need for a capacity mechanism, and outline an optimal design of a strategic reserve with a discriminatory capacity payment.

Suggested Citation

  • Holmberg, P. & Ritz, R., 2019. "Capacity mechanisms and the technology mix in competitive electricity markets," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1960, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:cam:camdae:1960
    Note: rar36
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/publication-cwpe-pdfs/cwpe1960.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. Gerard Llobet and Jorge Padilla, 2018. "Conventional Power Plants in Liberalized Electricity Markets with Renewable Entry," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    3. repec:aen:eeepjl:eeep4-2-newbery is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Joskow, Paul L., 2008. "Capacity payments in imperfect electricity markets: Need and design," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 159-170, September.
    5. repec:aen:journl:ej40-si1-ritz is not listed on IDEAS
    6. repec:aen:journl:ej37-2-leautier is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Michael A. Crew & Paul R. Kleindorfer, 1976. "Peak Load Pricing with a Diverse Technology," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 7(1), pages 207-231, Spring.
    8. Tangerås, Thomas P., 2018. "Equilibrium supply security in a multinational electricity market with renewable production," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 416-435.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Pär Holmberg & Thomas Tangerås, 2021. "Strategic Reserves versus Market-wide Capacity Mechanisms," Working Papers EPRG2109, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    2. Tómasson, Egill & Söder, Lennart, 2020. "Coordinated optimal strategic demand reserve procurement in multi-area power systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    3. Bichuch, Maxim & Hobbs, Benjamin F. & Song, Xinyue, 2023. "Identifying optimal capacity expansion and differentiated capacity payments under risk aversion and market power: A financial Stackelberg game approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).

    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. Keppler, Jan Horst & Quemin, Simon & Saguan, Marcelo, 2022. "Why the sustainable provision of low-carbon electricity needs hybrid markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    2. Csereklyei, Zsuzsanna & Kallies, Anne, 2024. "A legal-economic framework of wholesale electricity markets: Assessing Australia's transition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    3. Klaus Eisenack & Mathias Mier, 2019. "Peak-load pricing with different types of dispatchability," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 105-124, December.
    4. Traber, Thure, 2017. "Capacity Remuneration Mechanisms for Reliability in the Integrated European Electricity Market: Effects on Welfare and Distribution through 2023," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-14.
    5. Pär Holmberg & Thomas Tangerås, 2021. "Strategic Reserves versus Market-wide Capacity Mechanisms," Working Papers EPRG2109, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    6. Thure Traber, 2014. "Capacity Mechanisms on Central European Electricity Markets: Effects on Consumers, Producers and Technologies until 2033," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1385, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    7. Milstein, Irena & Tishler, Asher, 2019. "On the effects of capacity payments in competitive electricity markets: Capacity adequacy, price cap, and reliability," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 370-385.
    8. Csereklyei, Zsuzsanna & Kallies, Anne, 2022. "A legal-economic framework of electricity markets: Assessing Australia’s transition," MPRA Paper 114191, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Pär Holmberg & Robert A. Ritz, 2021. "Optimal Capacity Mechanisms for Competitive Electricity Markets," The Energy Journal, , vol. 42(1_suppl), pages 1-34, June.
    10. Christina Elberg, 2014. "Cross-Border Effects of Capacity Mechanisms in Electricity Markets," EWI Working Papers 2014-11, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    11. Growitsch, Christian & Just, Lisa & Pedell, Burkhard, 2014. "Risk Assessment of Investments in Energy-only and Capacity Markets," Die Unternehmung - Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 68(3), pages 181-188.
    12. Kim, Hyunsook & Kim, Sung-Soo, 2012. "The resource adequacy scheme in the Korean electricity market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 133-144.
    13. Franziska Klaucke & Karsten Neuhoff & Alexander Roth & Wolf-Peter Schill & Leon Stolle, 2025. "An advanced reliability reserve incentivizes flexibility investments while safeguarding the electricity market," Papers 2506.14664, arXiv.org.
    14. Mier, Mathias, 2021. "Efficient pricing of electricity revisited," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    15. Veit Böckers & Leonie Giessing & Justus Haucap & Ulrich Heimeshoff & Jürgen Rösch, 2012. "Braucht Deutschland Kapazitätsmechanismen für Kraftwerke?: Eine Analyse des deutschen Marktes für Stromerzeugung," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 81(1), pages 73-90.
    16. Fabra, Natalia, 2018. "A primer on capacity mechanisms," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 323-335.
    17. Joskow, Paul L., 2008. "Capacity payments in imperfect electricity markets: Need and design," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 159-170, September.
    18. Léautier, Thomas-Olivier, 2014. "Transmission constraints and strategic underinvestment in electric power generation," IDEI Working Papers 816, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    19. Daniel Hach & Stefan Spinler, 2018. "Robustness of capacity markets: a stochastic dynamic capacity investment model," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 40(2), pages 517-540, March.
    20. Ovaere, Marten & Heylen, Evelyn & Proost, Stef & Deconinck, Geert & Van Hertem, Dirk, 2019. "How detailed value of lost load data impact power system reliability decisions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 1064-1075.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D41 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Perfect Competition
    • 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:1960. 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.