negative prices

The Case for Allowing Negative Electricity Prices – Benedettini and Stagnaro

Simona Benedettini and Carlo Stagnaro make the case for allowing negative prices in electric power markets in Europe. A few of the larger power markets in Europe allow prices to go negative, but others retain a zero price lower limit. Benedettini and Stagnaro explain both why it is reasonable, economically speaking, to allow electricity prices …

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Negative Power Prices Due to Wind Power’s Subsidy

Michael Giberson On the NYTimes.com Green blog, Matthew Wald reports on “An argument over wind.” The issue is the scheduled-to-expire Production Tax Credit for wind power. As previously mentioned here, former PTC-supporter Exelon Corp. has come out against the PTC extension. It parted ways from the American Wind Energy Association, of which it had long …

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Negative Power Prices in Rto and Bilateral Power Markets

Michael Giberson The Energy Information Administration has published a pair of short posts on negative power prices, one looking at negative prices in bilateral power markets in the Pacific Northwest and another looking at negative prices in RTO markets across the country. Dan Haugen has a related story at Midwest Energy News. Negative power prices may seem counter intuitive, …

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Scottish Wind Power Plants Paid Not to Produce

Michael Giberson The Telegraph has reported “six Scottish wind farms were asked to stop producing electricity on a particularly windy night last month as the National Grid was overloaded.” The operators were paid a total of £900,000 to take the night off, likely earning more from not operating than they would have earned from selling power that …

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BPA Won’t Pay Negative Prices to Get Wind Power Producers to Curtail

Michael Giberson At a December 2010 meeting, the federal Bonneville Power Agency announced that it would not pay wind power producers in its area to curtail during overgeneration events that sometimes result from the way the agency manages water flow through hydropower facilities to comply with environmental regulations. When reservoirs are full, the BPA’s dams …

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Give It Away Now: Wind Power and the Price of Electricity

Michael Giberson Forbes recently ran a story by Jonathon Farey, “Wind Power’s Weird Effect,” about how sometimes high wind power output and limited transmission capability combine to produce wholesale power prices dropping to zero or below.  (Of course regular readers here have been aware of the issue at least since last November.) Much more informative …

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Negative Power Prices in Ercot West: Charts for Jan-june 2009

Michael Giberson Below are three charts showing data on ERCOT West zone power prices for the January-June 2009 period.  The charts were derived from data provided through the ERCOT website, on their “Balancing Energy Services Market Clearing Prices for Energy Annual Report” page. These charts were prepared in the same way, including use of the …

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2009 Power Prices in Ercot’s West Zone: a Mix of Wind Power, Natural Gas Prices, Transmission Constraints, and (inefficient) Congestion Management Practices

Michael Giberson ERCOT reached a new peak load record last week, beating the record set just a week before. Boone Pickens is backing off a little from earlier ambitions to build the world’s largest wind power facility near Pampa, Texas. The Wall Street Journal reported recently that low natural gas prices are limiting interest in …

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