Managing Unilateral Market Power in Electricity

Managing Unilateral Market Power in Electricity PDF Author: Frank A. Wolak
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Electric power
Languages : en
Pages : 27

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Book Description
"This paper first describes those features of the electricity supply industry that make a prospective market monitoring process essential to a well-functioning wholesale market. Some of these features are shared with the securities industry, although the technology of electricity production and delivery make a reliable transmission network a necessary condition for an efficient wholesale market. These features of the electricity supply industry also make antitrust or competition law alone an inadequate foundation for an electricity market monitoring process.

Managing Unilateral Market Power in Electricity

Managing Unilateral Market Power in Electricity PDF Author: Frank A. Wolak
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This paper first describes those features of the electricity supply industry that make a prospective market monitoring process essential to a well-functioning wholesale market. Some of these features are shared with the securities industry, although the technology of electricity production and delivery make a reliable transmission network a necessary condition for an efficient wholesale market. These features of the electricity supply industry also make antitrust or competition law alone an inadequate foundation for an electricity market monitoring process. This paper provides examples of both the successes and failures of market monitoring from several international markets. More than 10 years of experience with the electricity industry restructuring process has shown that market failures are more likely and substantially more harmful to consumers than other market failures because of how electricity is produced and delivered and the crucial role it plays in the modern economy. Wholesale market meltdowns of varying magnitudes and durations have occurred in electricity markets around the world, and many of them could have been prevented if a prospective market monitoring process backed by the prevailing regulatory authority had been in place at the start of the market.

How Do Firms Exercise Unilateral Market Power?

How Do Firms Exercise Unilateral Market Power? PDF Author: Shaun D. McRae
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electric utilities
Languages : en
Pages : 59

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Book Description


Lessons from International Experience with Electricity Market Monitoring

Lessons from International Experience with Electricity Market Monitoring PDF Author: Frank A. Wolak
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Electric power
Languages : en
Pages : 23

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Book Description
More than 10 years of experience with the electricity industry restructuring process has shown that market failures are more likely and substantially more harmful to consumers than other market failures because of how electricity is produced and delivered and the crucial role it plays in the modern economy. Wholesale market meltdowns of varying magnitudes and durations have occurred in electricity markets around the world, and many of them could have been prevented if a prospective market monitoring process backed by the prevailing regulatory authority had been in place at the start of the market."

Essays on Regulation, Liberalization and Privatization in Energy Markets

Essays on Regulation, Liberalization and Privatization in Energy Markets PDF Author: Carlos Suárez
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
"The general motivation of this research is to explore the effects of the coexistence of public and private companies on the allocative efficiency of the supply of electricity. In particular, this thesis investigates from an empirical perspective to what extent the distinction between private and public companies is relevant to understand the competition in the wholesale electricity generation markets. I apply several econometric techniques and theory advances in industrial organization branch on data of the firms of the Colombian market. The case of the Colombian electricity market is suitable to study this issues for four reasons: i) It is an oligopoly in which private and public companies compete under the same rules. ii) The most important firms in the Colombian electricity sector are mature organizations, with a conventional business vision. In fact, many of these companies belong to transnational capital that carry out activities in several continents. iii) The market setting have a conventional design similar to other liberalized electricity markets. It operates as a multi-unit uniform-price auction. iv) There is available information with daily and even hourly resolution of the generation market variables. I consider that these are key elements for justifying the external validity of the results. This thesis presents three essays that aim to answer three questions related to the interaction between competition in electricity markets and their ownership structure. Chapter 1 addresses the question: Do the switch from public to private management have impacts in the bidding strategy of specific generation assets? Chapter 2 explores the question: Do public and private generation companies respond the same to the incentives to relax competition? Chapter 3 focuses on the question: Do private companies have a greater propensity to establish coordination relationships in comparison to public firms? In the first chapter of this thesis I evaluate the impact of privatization on the bidding of electricity units participating in a liberalized wholesale electricity market. The results of this evaluation contribute to better understand whether privatization is the right decision in an environment of imperfect competition. In this essay I adopt a policy evaluation approach to estimate the impact of changes from public to private management on the bidding prices of electricity generation units. I use information of bidding prices of the Colombian wholesale electricity market and exploit the changes of management of generation units documented in the period 2006 - 2018. The methodologies and results presented in this thesis contributes to the literature of mixed oligopoly because they place special emphasis on the behavioral differences between private and public companies and studies a field experience in which they compete in the same relevant market. The empirical evidence resultant from the policy evaluation method is aligned with the theoretical predictions of comparative statics arising from the behavioral differences of mixed oligopoly models. The second chapter of this dissertation proposes a methodology in order to find differences between the reactions of private and public firms when they face incentives to exercises unilateral market power. Several common events in the electricity industry such as transmission restrictions, the concentration of generation property within specific areas, the non-storage capacity of electricity and the low elasticity of demand, provide opportunities to exert market power. That is why this issue has been widely studied and discussed theoretically and empirically. The novel element of this essay in relation to this strand of the literature is accounting for the distinction between private and public companies regarding competitive behavior. Chapter 3 investigates from an empirical perspective the role of disclosure information in the stability of informal coordination agreements. Particularly, this chapter focuses in the economic effects of the announcement and the put into effect of a non-transparency policy implemented in the Colombian wholesale electricity market in 2009. We propose an identification strategy for isolating the effect of a coordinating relation from the confusion factors related with unilateral market power. The characteristics of the reform of the transparency policy allow to link the simple announcement of the policy change with the collapse of a coordinated strategy of private firms in a repeated interaction context. We use several empirical tools to assess the impact of the simple announcement of a modification in the transparency conditions on the average bidding price of private firms. We present an empirical analysis of the average bidding price data over August 2008 - July 2009. Overall, the evidence presented in the three essays of this dissertation indicates that the distinction between public and private companies may be a relevant aspect for explaining the functioning of competition in liberalized industries." -- TDX.

Market Power in Power Markets

Market Power in Power Markets PDF Author: Sandeep Vaheesan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
State and federal initiatives have opened the American electric power industry to competition over the past four decades. Although the process has not occurred uniformly across the country, wholesale markets exist everywhere today. Independent power producers can now construct generation and sell their output to utilities and direct purchasers through bilateral contracts. In many regions, centralized power markets have also been established and facilitate the sale of billions of dollars in electricity annually through hourly auctions. As market forces have replaced direct price regulation in electricity, antitrust enforcement, however, has not expanded its role commensurately. Even though a lack of competition has been a chronic problem in power markets and arguably undermined the purpose of industry restructuring, the courts have invoked the filed rate doctrine to prohibit private antitrust suits against generators and other market participants accused of collusive behavior. The courts have held that federal and state regulation is adequate to maintain competitive markets and have questioned their own ability to deter anticompetitive behavior. The courts have used this faulty line of regulatory adequacy combined with judicial deficiency to immunize power generators from antitrust damages liability. While Congress or the Supreme Court should abolish the doctrine and allow for the antitrust laws to be fully enforced in electricity markets, eliminating this immunity is not sufficient to create competitive power markets and prevent repeats of the market manipulation seen in the California and Texas markets. The existence of private treble damages suits could have deterred collusive conduct like the anticompetitive financial arrangement between two major generators in the New York City wholesale market between 2006 and 2008. Yet, the antitrust laws are comparatively powerless to remedy the principal forms of anticompetitive behavior seen in power markets. Antitrust jurisprudence in the United States does not proscribe the exercise of unilateral market power and places high hurdles to finding liability against parties accused of colluding tacitly. Given the limitations of traditional private antitrust remedies, federal and state regulators must focus on creating competitive market structures. They can take three concrete steps toward this end: police generator consolidation more carefully, encourage expansions of the transmission grid, and expose more ratepayers to price signals. Vigorous application of these broader competition policy measures is necessary to redeem a restructuring project whose results thus far have been, at best, uncertain.

Local Electricity Markets

Local Electricity Markets PDF Author: Tiago Pinto
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0128226668
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
Local Electricity Markets introduces the fundamental characteristics, needs, and constraints shaping the design and implementation of local electricity markets. It addresses current proposed local market models and lessons from their limited practical implementation. The work discusses relevant decision and informatics tools considered important in the implementation of local electricity markets. It also includes a review on management and trading platforms, including commercially available tools. Aspects of local electricity market infrastructure are identified and discussed, including physical and software infrastructure. It discusses the current regulatory frameworks available for local electricity market development internationally. The work concludes with a discussion of barriers and opportunities for local electricity markets in the future. - Delineates key components shaping the design and implementation of local electricity market structure - Provides a coherent view on the enabling infrastructures and technologies that underpin local market expansion - Explores the current regulatory environment for local electricity markets drawn from a global panel of contributors - Exposes future paths toward widespread implementation of local electricity markets using an empirical review of barriers and opportunities - Reviews relevant local electricity market case studies, pilots and demonstrators already deployed and under implementation

Competition and Regulation in Electricity Markets

Competition and Regulation in Electricity Markets PDF Author: Sebastian Eyre
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781783479771
Category : Competition
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Featuring an original introduction by the editors, these carefully-selected essays explore the main issues surrounding competition and regulation in electricity markets. The industry is experiencing irresistible forces of change, driven by energy policy objectives; a reassessment of market regulation in the face of high-energy prices; and the response to consumer pressure to agree on what constitutes a fair price for energy. This volume identifies the key articles that underpin the debate across the industries supply chain (generation, supply and networks) from a regulatory perspective (including market power and incentive regulation). The collection then considers the overall impact of liberalisation and future developments.

Alternating Currents

Alternating Currents PDF Author: Timothy J. Brennan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136527036
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Many states within the U.S., and many countries across the world, are opening their electicity markets to competition. Many others are uncertain about their plans. These differences emphasize the complexities involved in the technology and regulatory structure of the electricity industry--an industry for which the introduction of market competition has been notoriously difficult. In response to these challenges, Alternating Currents provides a timely overview and analysis of the concerns facing industry regulators, legislators, and others as they consider whether, when, and how to open electricity markets. Authors Brennan, Palmer, and Martinez offer background on the history of regulatory policy and the technology for producing and delivering electric power. They then provide insights into the policy debates and economic issues involved in eleven important topics, including industry structure, system integrity and reliability, the mitigation of market power, and environmental protection. Alternating Currents describes the recent events leading to the demise of retail competition in California with the intent on drawing lessons for the future. In the end, the authors offer their perspective about what makes electricity a unique resource and how those factors make the potential conflict between competition and reliability the most pressing of the long-term concerns about the transformation of the electric power industry.

Electricity Deregulation

Electricity Deregulation PDF Author: James M. Griffin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226308588
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 453

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Book Description
The electricity market has experienced enormous setbacks in delivering on the promise of deregulation. In theory, deregulating the electricity market would increase the efficiency of the industry by producing electricity at lower costs and passing those cost savings on to customers. As Electricity Deregulation shows, successful deregulation is possible, although it is by no means a hands-off process—in fact, it requires a substantial amount of design and regulatory oversight. This collection brings together leading experts from academia, government, and big business to discuss the lessons learned from experiences such as California's market meltdown as well as the ill-conceived policy choices that contributed to those failures. More importantly, the essays that comprise Electricity Deregulation offer a number of innovative prescriptions for the successful design of deregulated electricity markets. Written with economists and professionals associated with each of the network industries in mind, this comprehensive volume provides a timely and astute deliberation on the many risks and rewards of electricity deregulation.