power market design

Al Roth, Matchmaker

Michael Giberson Stanford’s alumni association magazine has a good article on recent economics Nobelist Al Roth. Several things about the article will trigger resistance among some free market readers, beginning with the title (“The Visible Hand”) and the subhead (A new breed of economist, Alvin Roth brings an engineering sensibility to fixing markets.). Deep into …

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‘Demand Response’ in Electricity: Economists Vs. FERC on (Over)Pricing

Michael Giberson As noted here at KP in August, a group of electric power economists (including me) filed an amicus brief on FERC’s demand response pricing rule. At the Master Resource blog, Travis Fisher examines the issue with some detail. Here is a bit: In Order No. 745, FERC reasoned that, “when a demand response …

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Trying to Fix Ferc’s Demand Response Pricing Mistake

Michael Giberson Last year the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled that RTO and ISO markets should pay retail consumers an amount equal to the market’s real-time marginal price when consumers reduce consumption at peak periods. Economically speaking, it is the wrong price. Parties opposed to FERC’s action have taken the issue to court. A group of …

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Does Epsa Support Capacity Markets? For Power Markets, Yes; for Gas Pipeline Markets…

Michael Giberson The Electric Power Supply Association, “the national trade association representing competitive power suppliers,” supports the use of electric power capacity markets to ensure sufficient generation capacity is available to reliably serve peak consumer load. See, for example, EPSA’s policy paper on the topic: Well-functioning forward capacity markets are a critical component of organized wholesale …

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NYC Brownouts? But Why?? I Thought They Had Electric Power Capacity Markets

Michael Giberson From Reuters: Amid NYC heat wave, Con Edison lowers power voltage New York energy company Consolidated Edison Inc reduced the power voltage in some Manhattan neighborhoods on Wednesday, in an action known as a brownout, as a brutal heat wave stressed the city’s electric system for a third day. This was the second …

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Hayek’s Knowledge Problem As an Issue in Electric Power Market Design

Michael Giberson Recently the Brattle Group submitted a study of resource adequacy issues within the ERCOT power system and the policy options available to ERCOT and the PUC of Texas, the regulatory authority overseeing the ERCOT system. As the Brattle report points out, ERCOT has so far stuck with a so-called “energy-only” market design while …

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Solar Subsidies in Italy

Michael Giberson Carlo Stagnaro, writing in the European Energy Review, finds that Italy’s generous feed-in tariffs for solar power are creating challenges for both the Italian budget and the Italian energy market. In terms of investments, Italy’s experience with solar power is definitely a success… Only Germany has more PV capacity. Indeed, Italy has more …

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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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Competitive Power Market in Texas Faces Supply Concerns. Now What?

Michael Giberson The question troubling some folks in Texas’s competitive power market: Will Texas consumers want to consume more electric power than suppliers are able to supply? A resource adequacy review by ERCOT, the power system and market operator for most of the state, suggests that consumer demand may outstrip resources available as early as 2014. …

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