Utility-Scale Energy Storage in an Imperfectly Competitive Power Sector

Interest in sustainability has increased the share of variable renewable energy sources (VRES) in power generation. Energy storage systems' potential to mitigate intermittencies from non-dispatchable VRES has enhanced their appeal. However, the impacts of storage vary based on the owner and market conditions. We examine the policy implications of investments in utility-scale battery storage via a bi-level optimization model. The lower level depicts power system operations, modeled as either perfect competition or Cournot oligopoly to allow for the assessment of producer market power. The upper-level investor is either a welfare-maximizer or a profit-maximizing standalone merchant to reflect either welfare enhancement or arbitrage, respectively. We implement a realistic case study for Western Europe based on all possible size-location storage investment combinations. We find that market competition affects investment sizes, locations, and their profitability more than the investor's objectives. A welfare-maximizer under perfect competition invests the most in storage capacity. Consumers typically gain most from storage investments in all cases, exceeding the gains for the investors. Specifically, our results show that storage investments may either not occur or be located differently than at social optimum, if market power is exerted. Thus, policy makers need to anticipate producer market power when setting regulation

Factors for success in Swedish biogas

The energy sector of modern time is currently faced with several challenges. These are both production oriented and environmental oriented in nature. The energy of the future is intended to support an increasing demand while at the same time reduce its environmental affection. This stresses a development towards production methods of renewable energy. Among the existing methods, biogas is presented as an attractive alternative. Further, biogas is also perceived as an attractive business concept within the agricultural sector, since this sector contains a good supply of substrate that can be used in the biogas process. As an effect, biogas would enable renewable energy production in combination with biological waste treatment and thus there are several environmental benefits with using this method. The potential for producing biogas in Sweden today, is relatively unexploited. Studies shows that there still is a large potential for producing biogas in Sweden, where a large share is represented by agricultural products. This study aims at identifying factors that are important for a further development in agricultural based biogas production. The study have been based on interviews with 31 agricultural biogas producers, where the findings has been analyzed using resource based view and Diffusion theory. The study has shown that agricultural biogas production in Sweden needs to develop in order to become competitive. To enable such a development, factors such as support from external parties and investments in technological development is viewed as important.Energisektorn är i dagsläget en sektor som innehåller flera problem. Dels finns det miljömässiga som produktionsmässiga problem. Framtidens energi ska dels kunna bistå en ökande population med energi samtidigt som den ska minska sin miljöpåverkan. Detta kommer att kräva nya metoder för att producera energi. Biogas presenteras som ett attraktivt alternativ för att producera förnyelsebar energi. Vidare är biogas ett intressant affärskoncept inom jordbrukssektorn, då det finns god tillgång till substrat som kan användas i biogas processen. Effekten av biogas skulle innebära produktion av förnyelsebar energi kombinerat med biologisk avfallshantering. Således finns det flera miljömässiga effekter med biogas produktion. Potentialen för att producera biogas är i dagsläget i relativt liten i Sverige. Studier visar att det finns stor potential att utöka produktionen av biogas, där en stor andel beräknas komma från jordbruks produkter. Denna studie syftar till att identifiera framgångs faktorer för den Svenska jordbruksbaserade biogas produktionen, för att utforska möjligheterna till en fortsatt utveckling. Studien baseras på intervjuer från 31 jordbruksbaserade biogas producenter där insamlad data har analyserats med resursbaserad teori och spridnings teori. Studien visar att jordbruksbaserad biogas produktion är i behov av utveckling för att bli konkurrenskraftigt. För att möjligöra en sådan utveckling, pekas faktorer såsom inverkan från externa parter samt vidare satsningar i teknik ut som viktiga

Strategic Eurasian Natural Gas Model for Energy Security

The mathematical formulation of a large-scale equilibrium natural gas simulation model is presented. Although large-scale natural gas models have been developed and used for energy security and policy analysis quite extensively (e.g., Holz (2007), Egging et al. (2008), Holz et al. (2009) and Lise et al. (2008)), this model differs from earlier ones in its detailed representation of the structure and operations of the Former Soviet Union (FSU) gas sector. In particular, the model represents: (i) market power of transit countries, (ii) transmission pipelines in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Central Asia, (iii) differentiation among gas production regions in Russia, and (iv) gas trade relations between FSU countries (e.g., Gazprom’s re-exporting of Central Asian gas). To demonstrate the model, a social benefit-cost analysis of the Nord Stream gas pipeline project from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea is provided. It is found that Nord Stream project is profitable for its investors and the project also improves social welfare in all market power scenarios. Also, if transit countries (Ukraine and Belarus) exert substantial market power then the economic value of Nord Stream to its investors and to society improves substantially. We also found that the value of Nord Stream investment is rather sensitive to the degree of downstream competition in European markets and that lack of downstream competition might result in the negative value of the Nord Stream system to Gazprom

A Federal Renewable Electricity Requirement

Rising energy prices and climate change have changed both the economics and politics of electricity. In response, over half the states have enacted "renewable portfolio standards" (RPS) that require utilities to obtain some power from "renewable" generation resources rather than carbon emitting fossil fuels. Reports of state-level success have brought proposals for a national standard. Like several predecessor Congresses, however, the most recent one failed to pass RPS legislation. Before trying one more time, legislators should ask why they favor a policy so politically correct and so economically suspect. Support for a national program largely stems from misleading claims about state-level successes, misunderstandings about how renewables interact with other environmental regulation, and misinformation about the actual benefits renewables create. State RPS programs are largely in disarray, and even the apparently successful ones have had little impact. California's supposedly aggressive program has left it with the same percentage of renewable power as in 1998, and Texas's seemingly impressive wind turbine investments produce only two percent of its electricity. The public may envision solar collectors but wind accounts for almost all of the growth in renewable power, and it largely survives on favorable tax treatment. Wind's intermittency reduces its efficacy in carbon control because it requires extra conventional generation reserves. Computer-generated predictions about a national RPS are generally unreliable, but they show that with or without one the great majority of generation investments for the next several decades will be fossil-fueled. Even without the technological and environmental shortcomings of renewables, the case for a national RPS is economically flawed. Emissions policies are moving toward efficient market-based trading systems and more rational setting of standards. A national RPS clashes with principles of efficient environmental policy because it is a technological requirement that applies to a single industry. Arguments that a national RPS will create jobs, mitigate energy price risks, improve national security and make the United Sates more competitive internationally are in the main restatements of elementary economic fallacies. It is hard to imagine a program that delivers as little in theory as a national RPS, and the experiences of the states indicate that it delivers equally little in practice

The Private and Public Economics of Renewable Electricity Generation

Generating electricity from renewable sources is more expensive than conventional approaches, but reduces pollution externalities. Analyzing the tradeoff is much more challenging than often presumed, because the value of electricity is extremely dependent on the time and location at which it is produced, which is not very controllable with some renewables, such as wind and solar. Likewise, the pollution benefits from renewable generation depend on what type of generation it displaces, which also depends on time and location. Without incorporating these factors, cost-benefit analyses of alternatives are likely to be misleading. However, other common arguments for subsidizing renewable power – green jobs, energy security and driving down fossil energy prices – are unlikely to substantially alter the analysis. The role of intellectual property spillovers is a strong argument for subsidizing energy science research, but less persuasive as an enhancement to the value of installing current renewable energy technologies.

Issues and Options for Restructuring Electricity Supply Industries

The electricity supply industry is highly capital-intensive, whose success depends critically upon the management of its investment. In most developing countries investment is poorly managed, poorly maintained, and often inadequate. Inadequate regulation or political control lead to low prices that undermine the finance of investment and give poor incentives for management and operation. The paper argues that regulation must be carefully designed to provide efficient incentives and adequate guarantees to sustain investment and operations and only then will privatisation improve performance and benefit consumers. The paper discusses the evidence for these claims, the circumstances required for full unbundling and liberalisation to be successful, and those where the Single Buyer Model or continued, ideally reformed, state ownership, may be preferable, at least until conditions improve

Space and Time: Wind in an Investment Planning Model

Investment planning models inform investment decisions and government policies. Current models do not capture the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources, restricting the applicability of the models for high penetrations of renewables. We provide a methodology to capture spatial variation in wind output in combination with transmission constraints. The representation of wind distributions with stochastic approaches or an extensive historic data set would exceed computational constraints for real world application. Hence we restrict the amount of input data, and use boot-strapping to illustrate the robustness of the results. For the UK power system we model wind deployment and the value of transmission capacity

Estimating Future Consumer Welfare Gains from Innovation: The Case of Digital Data Storage

We develop a quality-adjusted cost index to estimate expected returns to investments in new technologies. The index addresses the problem of measuring social benefits from innovations in service sector inputs, where real output is not directly observable. We forecast welfare gains from two U.S. Advanced Technology Program innovations equaling 25%-50% of expected price, and aggregate consumer benefits of $1-$2 billion, relative to trends in existing technologies. Our model’s probabilistic parameters reflect uncertainty about prospective outcomes and in our hedonic estimates of shadow values for selected product attributes. The index can be readily adopted by research and development (R&D) managers in industry and government.

State-of-the-art research : optimal investment in market-based electric power systems

The purpose of this state-of-the-art research paper is to surveying the literature on investment in market based electric power systems as a background for identifying and discussing some important issues in the optimal design and operation of such systems. A fundamental distinction has to be made between investment in the competitive part of the power system (generation and trading) on the one hand and the natural monopoly part (network infrastructure) on the other. The paper starts with a listing and discussion on market characteristics and properties of electric power and goes on to discussing performance criteria and potential sources of market failure for optimal electric power investment. After the literature survey there is a discussion of conditions under which optimal investment may occur