New renewable electricity capacity under uncertainty: The potential in Norway

Uncertainty affecting project values makes investors hesitate to build new capacity unless profitability is significant. When analysing the potential for new renewable power system capacity in a region, it is therefore necessary to properly capture both uncertainty effects and decision-making behaviour of investors. Important stochastic factors typically include wholesale electricity prices and certificate prices. We calculate trigger levels for the sum of these factors, and compare these with the current long-term contract prices to estimate the potential for new renewable electricity capacity. We take into account the cost and technical potential of small hydro and wind in Norway, the number of prenotifications, concession applications and grants, and the capacity targets of subsidising governmental bodies. With an electricity certificate policy target of 41 TWh per year of new renewables for Sweden and Norway combined until 2016, we estimate that 12 TWh wind power and 6.2 TWh hydropower will be built in Norway. Due to the option value of waiting, most of this capacity will come after 2010.Finance, Hydroelectric power generation, Power system planning, Stochastic processes, Uncertainty, Wind energy

Gas Fired Power Plants: Investment Timing, Operating Flexibility and Abandonment

We analyze investments in gas fired power plants under stochastic electricity and gas prices. We use a real options approach, taking into account the economic information in futures and forward prices. A simple but realistic two-factor model is used for price process, enabling analysis of the value of operating flexibility, the opportunity to sell and abandon the capital equipment, as well as finding thresholds for energy prices for which it is optimal to enter into the investment. Our case study, using real data, indicates that when the decision to build is considered, the plant’s flexibility and abandonment option do not have significant value.Real options, spark spread, gas fired power plant, forward prices

Modeling long-term electricity forward prices

In contrast to forwards and futures on storable commodities, prices of long-term electricity forwards exhibit a dynamics different to that of short-term and mid-term prices. We model long-term electricity forward prices through demand and supply for electricity, adjusted with a risk premium. Long-term prices of electricity, oil, coal, natural gas, emission allowance, imported electricity and aluminum are modeled with a vector autoregressive model. To estimate the model we use weekly prices of far-maturity forwards relevant for Nordic electricity market. Electricity prices experienced few substantial shocks during the period analyzed, however, we found no evidence of a structural break. Cointegration analysis indicates two stationary cointegrating vectors. Nord Pool price is found significant in the short- and the long-run model, while the gas price is insignificant in both. Other variables are significant only in the long-run model. The model shows some influence of the risk premium, however not on the long-term electricity forwards at Nord Pool.Electricity prices; long-term forward prices; VAR modeling; cointegration

Stochastic programming in energy

We give the reader a tour of good energy optimization models that explicitly deal with uncertainty. The uncertainty usually stems from unpredictability of demand and/or prices of energy, or from resource availability and prices. Since most energy investments or operations involve irreversible decisions, a stochastic programming approach is meaningful. Many of the models deal with electricity investments and operations, but some oil and gas applications are also presented. We consider both traditional cost minimization models and newer models that reflect industry deregulation processes. The oldest research coincides with the birth of linear programming, and most models within the market paradigm have not yet found their final form.stochastic programming, energy, regulated markets, deregulation, uncertainty, electricity, natural gas, oil

Investment timing and optimal capacity choice for small hydropower projects

This paper presents a method for assessing small hydropower projects that are subject to uncertain electricity prices. We present a real options-based method with continuous scaling, and we find that there is a unique price limit for initiating the project. If the current electricity price is below this limit it is never optimal to invest, but above this limit investment is made according to the function for optimal size. The connection between the real option and the physical properties of a small hydropower plant is dealt with using a spreadsheet model that performs a technical simulation of the production in a plant, based on all the important choices for such a plant. The main results of the spreadsheet are simulated production size and the investment costs, which are in turn used for finding the value of the real option and the price limit. The method is illustrated on three different Norwegian small hydropower projects.OR in Energy; Real Options; Continuous Scaling; Project Evaluation; Hydropower

Optimal hedging strategies for multi-period guarantees in the presence of transaction costs: A stochastic programming approach

Multi-period guarantees are often embedded in life insurance contracts. In this paper we consider the problem of hedging these multi-period guarantees in the presence of transaction costs. We derive the hedging strategies for the cheapest hedge portfolio for a multi-period guarantee that with certainty makes the insurance company able to meet the obligations from the insurance policies it has issued. We find that by imposing transaction costs, the insurance company reduces the rebalancing of the hedge portfolio. The cost of establishing the hedge portfolio also increases as the transaction cost increases. For the multi-period guarantee there is a rather large rebalancing of the hedge portfolio as we go from one period to the next. By introducing transaction costs we find the size of this rebalancing to be reduced. Transaction costs may therefore be one possible explanation for why we do not see the insurance companies performing a large rebalancing of their investment portfolio at the end of each year

New renewable electricity capacity under uncertainty: The potential in Norway

Uncertainty affecting project values makes investors hesitate to build new capacity unless profitability is significant. When analysing the potential for new renewable power system capacity in a region, it is therefore necessary to properly capture both uncertainty effects and decision-making behaviour of investors. Important stochastic factors typically include wholesale electricity prices and certificate prices. We calculate trigger levels for the sum of these factors, and compare these with the current long-term contract prices to estimate the potential for new renewable electricity capacity. We take into account the cost and technical potential of small hydro and wind in Norway, the number of prenotifications, concession applications and grants, and the capacity targets of subsidising governmental bodies. With an electricity certificate policy target of 41 TWh per year of new renewables for Sweden and Norway combined until 2016, we estimate that 12 TWh wind power and 6.2 TWh hydropower will be built in Norway. Due to the option value of waiting, most of this capacity will come after 2010

Modeling long-term electricity forward prices

In contrast to forwards and futures on storable commodities, prices of long-term electricity forwards exhibit a dynamics different to that of short-term and mid-term prices. We model long-term electricity forward prices through demand and supply for electricity, adjusted with a risk premium. Long-term prices of electricity, oil, coal, natural gas, emission allowance, imported electricity and aluminum are modeled with a vector autoregressive model. To estimate the model we use weekly prices of far-maturity forwards relevant for Nordic electricity market. Electricity prices experienced few substantial shocks during the period analyzed, however, we found no evidence of a structural break. Cointegration analysis indicates two stationary cointegrating vectors. Nord Pool price is found significant in the short- and the long-run model, while the gas price is insignificant in both. Other variables are significant only in the long-run model. The model shows some influence of the risk premium, however not on the long-term electricity forwards at Nord Pool

Gas fired power plants: Investment timing, operating flexibility and abandonment

We analyze investments in gas-fired power plants under stochastic electricity and natural gas prices. A simple but realistic two-factor model is used for price processes, enabling analysis of the value of operating flexibility, the opportunity to abandon the capital equipment, as well as finding thresholds for energy prices for which it is optimal to enter into the investment. Our case study uses representative power plant investment and operations data, and historical forward prices from well-functioning energy markets. We find that when the decision to build is considered, the abandonment option does not have significant value, whereas the operating flexibility and time-to-build option have significant effect on the building threshold. Furthermore, the joint value of the operating flexibility and the abandonment option is much smaller than the sum of their separate values, because both are options to shut down. The effects of emission costs on the value of installing CO2 capture technology are also analyzed

Gas fired power plants: Investment timing, operating flexibility and CO2 capture

We analyze investments in gas-fired power plants under stochastic electricity and natural gas prices. A simple but realistic two-factor model is used for price processes, enabling analysis of the value of operating flexibility, the opportunity to abandon the capital equipment, as well as finding thresholds for energy prices for which it is optimal to enter into the investment. Our case study uses representative power plant investment and operations data, and historical forward prices from well-functioning energy markets. We find that when the decision to build is considered, the abandonment option does not have significant value, whereas the operating flexibility and time-to-build option have significant effect on the building threshold. Furthermore, the joint value of the operating flexibility and the abandonment option is much smaller than the sum of their separate values, because both are options to shut down. The effects of emission costs on the value of installing CO2 capture technology are also analyzed