Buffering volatility : storage investments and technology-specific renewable energy support

Mitigating climate change will require integrating large amounts of highly intermittent renewable energy (RE) sources in future electricity markets. Considerable uncertainties exist about the cost and availability of future large-scale storage to alleviate the potential mismatch between demand and supply. This paper examines the suitability of regulatory (public policy) mechanisms for coping with the volatility induced by intermittent RE sources, using a numerical equilibrium model of a future wholesale electricity market. We find that the optimal RE subsidies are technology-specific reflecting the heterogeneous value for system integration. Differentiated RE subsidies reduce the curtailment of excess production, thereby preventing costly investments in energy storage. Using a simple cost-benefit framework, we show that a smart design of RE support policies significantly reduces the level of optimal storage. We further find that the marginal benefits of storage rapidly decrease for short-term (intra-day) storage and are small for long-term (seasonal) storage independent of the storage level. This suggests that storage is not likely to be the limiting factor for decarbonizing the electricity sector

Coal in Alaska requirements to enhance environmentally sound use in both domestic and Pacific Rim markets

This document originates from three meetings held in 1989 with the leaders of the Alaskan Coal Industry and coal technologists from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)~ Mineral Industry Research Laboratory (MIRL) and Geophysical Institute - University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, the Alaska Science and Technology Commission, several of the Alaska Native Corporations, and a number of coal experts from private industries. The information included is intended to illustrate the vast resource base and quality of Alaskan coals, show the projected size of the Pacific Rim steam coal market, discuss policy changes necessary to facilitate the development of an expanded coal industry, and describe the technology development needs for Alaskan coals to compete in the world market. It is aimed at increasing the general knowledge about the potential of coal in Alaska and providing data for use in marketing the resource.Prepared for the Governor and Legislators - State of Alaska under the Direction of Dr. Henry Cole, Science and Technology Advisor. Technical Editor - Dr. Warrack G. Willson, Energy and Environmental Research Center, University of North Dakota; and Mineral Industry Research Laboratory, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Co-authors - W. (Bill) Irwin, Consultant, Calgary, Alberta; Dr. John Sims, Usibelli Coal Mine Inc.; Dr. p.o. Rao, Mineral Industry Research Laboratory; and Bill Noll, Suneel Alaska Corp

Control and Communication Protocols that Enable Smart Building Microgrids

Recent communication, computation, and technology advances coupled with climate change concerns have transformed the near future prospects of electricity transmission, and, more notably, distribution systems and microgrids. Distributed resources (wind and solar generation, combined heat and power) and flexible loads (storage, computing, EV, HVAC) make it imperative to increase investment and improve operational efficiency. Commercial and residential buildings, being the largest energy consumption group among flexible loads in microgrids, have the largest potential and flexibility to provide demand side management. Recent advances in networked systems and the anticipated breakthroughs of the Internet of Things will enable significant advances in demand response capabilities of intelligent load network of power-consuming devices such as HVAC components, water heaters, and buildings. In this paper, a new operating framework, called packetized direct load control (PDLC), is proposed based on the notion of quantization of energy demand. This control protocol is built on top of two communication protocols that carry either complete or binary information regarding the operation status of the appliances. We discuss the optimal demand side operation for both protocols and analytically derive the performance differences between the protocols. We propose an optimal reservation strategy for traditional and renewable energy for the PDLC in both day-ahead and real time markets. In the end we discuss the fundamental trade-off between achieving controllability and endowing flexibility

Modeling electricity prices: international evidence

This paper analyses the evolution of electricity prices in deregulated markets. We present a general model that simultaneously takes into account the possibility of several factors: seasonality, mean reversion, GARCH behaviour and time-dependent jumps. The model is applied to equilibrium spot prices of electricity markets from Argentina, Australia (Victoria), New Zealand (Hayward), NordPool (Scandinavia), Spain and U.S. (PJM) using daily data. Six different nested models were estimated to compare the relative importance of each factor and their interactions. We obtained that electricity prices are mean-reverting with strong volatility (GARCH) and jumps of time-dependent intensity even after adjusting for seasonality. We also provide a detailed unit root analysis of electricity prices against mean reversion, in the presence of jumps and GARCH errors, and propose a new powerful procedure based on bootstrap techniques

Mainstreaming New Renewable Energy Technologies

This paper outlines the benefits, obstacles and options for governments to support international markets for technology development. International markets for new energy technologies offer greater scope, thereby increasing the incentives and opportunities for technology improvements. As the market is supported by more independent governments, the confidence of technology developers and producers that future markets for their products will exist is increasing, thus enabling capital access and inducing R&D investment and exploration of improved production processes. The bigger markets also allow for international competition, thus allowing for the application of the best available technology. The government challenge to induce sufficient RD&D remains and with international markets the benefits and costs of national governments free-riding on international effort needs to be addressed. Finally, we discuss how international co-operation can be used to evolve the energy system in such a way that it can integrate new technologies at minimum cost

Energy markets and the macroeconomy

The article looks at the energy markets from a macroeconomic perspective. It first describes the main trends in the production and consumption of energy. Belgium is characterised by a high degree of energy dependency, since it no longer has any fossil fuel resources and renewable energy is not yet well developed in the country. Moreover, its economy has a high energy intensity, due to specialisation in energy-intensive sectors and high consumption of energy products by Belgian households. The operation of the energy markets and the implications for the pricing of energy products is examined in a second part. The pass-through of fluctuations in the price of crude oil onto consumer prices of petrol, diesel and heating oil is both fast and full, in Belgium as well as in the neighbouring countries. However, because of the low level of excise duty on diesel and particularly on heating oil, consumer prices charged for these energy products in Belgium are more sensitive to fluctuations in the crude oil price. Also, the Belgian consumer price of gas and electricity reacts much faster than in neighbouring countries to fluctuations in prices on the international markets, since in other euro area countries, prices are adjusted less frequently than in Belgium and in some cases they are still subject to some form of regulation. More generally, despite liberalisation, the effective degree of competition on the gas and electricity markets is still very low, both in Belgium and in the other euro area countries. Finally, the impact of fluctuations in crude oil prices on inflation and economic activity is discussed. In addition to its high energy intensity and strong reactions of its energy consumer prices to oil price fluctuations, the Belgian economy’s sensitivity to oil shocks is heightened by the indexation mechanism it applies, even though the use of the health index partly neutralises the initial shock. However, that additional negative impact can be curbed by constant monitoring of Belgian competitiveness, as prescribed by a 1996 law on the promotion of employment and the safeguarding of competitiveness.energy markets, oil, inflation, pass-through, Belgium

Market Design for Generation Adequacy: Healing Causes rather than Symptoms

Keywords JEL Classification This paper argues that electricity market reform – particularly the need for complementary mechanisms to remunerate capacity – need to be analysed in the light of the local regulatory and institutional environment. If there is a lack of investment, the priority should be to identify the roots of the problem. The lack of demand side response, short-term reliability management procedures and uncompetitive ancillary services procurement often undermine market reflective scarcity pricing and distort long-term investment incentives. The introduction of a capacity mechanism should come as an optional supplement to wholesale and ancillary markets improvements. Priority reforms should focus on encouraging demand side responsiveness and reducing scarcity price distortions introduced by balancing and congestion management through better dialog between network engineers and market operators. electricity market, generation adequacy, market design, capacity mechanis

Understanding European policy on the internal market for electricity and gas: evaluation of the Electricity and Gas Directives

This report examines the various inputs to the Electricity and Gas Directives review

Investment in new power generation in New South Wales: Comments by Public Service International Research Unit, University of Greenwich, London

This report comments on the prospects for new generation investment in New South Wales, in particular, what the role of the public sector should be