Modeling electricity prices with regime switching models

We address the issue of modeling spot electricity prices with regime switching models. After reviewing the stylized facts about power markets we propose and fit various models to spot prices from the Nordic power exchange. Afterwards we assess their performance by comparing simulated and market prices.Power market, Electricity price modeling, Regime switching model

Heavy-tails and regime-switching in electricity prices

In this paper we first analyze the stylized facts of electricity prices, in particular, the extreme volatility and price spikes which lead to heavy-tailed distributions of price changes. Then we calibrate Markov regime-switching (MRS) models with heavy-tailed components and show that they adequately address the aforementioned characteristics. Contrary to the common belief that electricity price models ‘should be built on log-prices’, we find evidence that modeling the prices themselves is more beneficial and methodologically sound, at least in case of MRS models.Electricity spot price, Heavy-tails, Spikes, Markov regime-switching, Pareto distribution

An empirical comparison of alternate regime-switching models for electricity spot prices

One of the most profound features of electricity spot prices are the price spikes. Markov regime-switching (MRS) models seem to be a natural candidate for modeling this spiky behavior. However, in the studies published so far, the goodness-of-fit of the proposed models has not been a major focus. While most of the models were elegant, their fit to empirical data has either been not examined thoroughly or the signs of a bad fit ignored. With this paper we want to fill the gap. We calibrate and test a range of MRS models in an attempt to find parsimonious specifications that not only address the main characteristics of electricity prices but are statistically sound as well. We find that the best structure is that of an independent spike 3-regime model with heteroscedastic diffusion-type base regime dynamics and shifted spike regime distributions. Not only does it allow for consecutive spikes or price drops, which is consistent with market observations, but also exhibits the ‘inverse leverage effect’ reported in the literature for spot electricity prices

Modeling electricity spot prices: Regime switching models with price-capped spike distributions

We calibrate Markov regime-switching (MRS) models to spot (log-)prices from two major power markets. We show that while the price-capped (or truncated) spike distributions do not give any advantage over the standard specification in case of moderately spiky markets (such as NEPOOL), they improve the fit and yield significantly different results in case of extremely spiky markets (such as the Australian NSW market).Electricity spot price; Markov regime-switching model; Price spike; Price cap; Truncated distribution

Heavy-tails and regime-switching in electricity prices

In this paper we first analyze the stylized facts of electricity prices, in particular, the extreme volatility and price spikes which lead to heavy-tailed distributions of price changes. Then we calibrate Markov regime-switching (MRS) models with heavy-tailed components and show that they adequately address the aforementioned characteristics. Contrary to the common belief that electricity price models ‘should be built on log-prices’, we find evidence that modeling the prices themselves is more beneficial and methodologically sound, at least in case of MRS models

Heavy-tails and regime-switching in electricity prices

In this paper we first analyze the stylized facts of electricity prices, in particular, the extreme volatility and price spikes which lead to heavy-tailed distributions of price changes. Then we calibrate Markov regime-switching (MRS) models with heavy-tailed components and show that they adequately address the aforementioned characteristics. Contrary to the common belief that electricity price models ‘should be built on log-prices’, we find evidence that modeling the prices themselves is more beneficial and methodologically sound, at least in case of MRS models

An empirical comparison of alternate regime-switching models for electricity spot prices

One of the most profound features of electricity spot prices are the price spikes. Markov regime-switching (MRS) models seem to be a natural candidate for modeling this spiky behavior. However, in the studies published so far, the goodness-of-fit of the proposed models has not been a major focus. While most of the models were elegant, their fit to empirical data has either been not examined thoroughly or the signs of a bad fit ignored. With this paper we want to fill the gap. We calibrate and test a range of MRS models in an attempt to find parsimonious specifications that not only address the main characteristics of electricity prices but are statistically sound as well. We find that the best structure is that of an independent spike 3-regime model with heteroscedastic diffusion-type base regime dynamics and shifted spike regime distributions. Not only does it allow for consecutive spikes or price drops, which is consistent with market observations, but also exhibits the ‘inverse leverage effect’ reported in the literature for spot electricity prices

Modeling electricity spot prices: Regime switching models with price-capped spike distributions

We calibrate Markov regime-switching (MRS) models to spot (log-)prices from two major power markets. We show that while the price-capped (or truncated) spike distributions do not give any advantage over the standard specification in case of moderately spiky markets (such as NEPOOL), they improve the fit and yield significantly different results in case of extremely spiky markets (such as the Australian NSW market)

Modeling electricity spot prices: Regime switching models with price-capped spike distributions

We calibrate Markov regime-switching (MRS) models to spot (log-)prices from two major power markets. We show that while the price-capped (or truncated) spike distributions do not give any advantage over the standard specification in case of moderately spiky markets (such as NEPOOL), they improve the fit and yield significantly different results in case of extremely spiky markets (such as the Australian NSW market)

An empirical comparison of alternate regime-switching models for electricity spot prices

One of the most profound features of electricity spot prices are the price spikes. Markov regime-switching (MRS) models seem to be a natural candidate for modeling this spiky behavior. However, in the studies published so far, the goodness-of-fit of the proposed models has not been a major focus. While most of the models were elegant, their fit to empirical data has either been not examined thoroughly or the signs of a bad fit ignored. With this paper we want to fill the gap. We calibrate and test a range of MRS models in an attempt to find parsimonious specifications that not only address the main characteristics of electricity prices but are statistically sound as well. We find that the most universal and robust structure is that of an independent spike 3-regime model with heteroscedastic diffusion-type base regime dynamics and shifted spike regime distributions