IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v61y2013icp751-760.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The costs of electricity interruptions in Spain. Are we sending the right signals?

Author

Listed:
  • Linares, Pedro
  • Rey, Luis

Abstract

One of the objectives of energy security is the uninterrupted physical availability of energy. However, there is limited information about how much is the cost of energy supply interruptions. This information is essential to optimize investment and operating decisions to prevent energy shortages, or, alternatively, to determine the strength of the signals to be sent to the agents so that they may invest accordingly. In this paper, we estimate the economic impact of an electricity interruption in different sectors and regions of Spain. Although there are several caveats in our analysis, we find that in 2008 the cost for the Spanish economy of one kWh of electricity not supplied was above €4 even in a conservative scenario, which is higher than the signals currently being sent as incentives to avoid these interruptions. This might result in an underinvestment in short-term energy security, particularly when we add the usual risk aversion of most consumers.

Suggested Citation

  • Linares, Pedro & Rey, Luis, 2013. "The costs of electricity interruptions in Spain. Are we sending the right signals?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 751-760.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:61:y:2013:i:c:p:751-760
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.05.083
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421513004382
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.05.083?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christian Growitsch & Tooraj Jamasb & Christine Müller & Matthias Wissner, 2016. "Social Cost Efficient Service Quality: Integrating Customer Valuation in Incentive Regulation—Evidence from the Case of Norway," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: Joe Zhu (ed.), Data Envelopment Analysis, chapter 0, pages 71-91, Springer.
    2. Fisher-Vanden, Karen & Mansur, Erin T. & Wang, Qiong (Juliana), 2015. "Electricity shortages and firm productivity: Evidence from China's industrial firms," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 172-188.
    3. Ignacio J. Perez-Arriaga & Carlos Batlle, 2012. "Impacts of Intermittent Renewables on Electricity Generation System Operation," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    4. de Nooij, Michiel & Koopmans, Carl & Bijvoet, Carlijn, 2007. "The value of supply security: The costs of power interruptions: Economic input for damage reduction and investment in networks," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 277-295, March.
    5. Leahy, Eimear & Tol, Richard S.J., 2011. "An estimate of the value of lost load for Ireland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1514-1520, March.
    6. Blázquez-Gómez, Leticia & Grifell-Tatjé, Emili, 2011. "Evaluating the regulator: Winners and losers in the regulation of Spanish electricity distribution," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 807-815, September.
    7. Batlle, Carlos & Vazquez, Carlos & Rivier, Michel & Perez-Arriaga, Ignacio J., 2007. "Enhancing power supply adequacy in Spain: Migrating from capacity payments to reliability options," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 4545-4554, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wu, Kuei-Yen & Huang, Yun-Hsun & Wu, Jung-Hua, 2018. "Impact of electricity shortages during energy transitions in Taiwan," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 622-632.
    2. Alastaire S na ALINSATO, 2015. "Economic Valuation of Electrical Service Reliability for Households in Developing Country: A Censored Random Coefficient Model Approach," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 5(1), pages 352-359.
    3. Landegren, Finn & Johansson, Jonas & Samuelsson, Olof, 2019. "Quality of supply regulations versus societal priorities regarding electricity outage consequences: Case study in a Swedish context," International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    4. Marcos Perroni & Luciano Luiz Dalazen & Wesley Vieira da Silva & Sergio Eduardo Gouv a da Costa & Claudimar Pereira da Veiga, 2015. "Evolution of Risks for Energy Companies from the Energy Efficiency Perspective: The Brazilian Case," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 5(2), pages 612-623.
    5. Castro, Rui & Faias, Sérgio & Esteves, Jorge, 2016. "The cost of electricity interruptions in Portugal: Valuing lost load by applying the production-function approach," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 48-57.
    6. Abrate, Graziano & Bruno, Clementina & Erbetta, Fabrizio & Fraquelli, Giovanni & Lorite-Espejo, Azahara, 2016. "A choice experiment on the willingness of households to accept power outages," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(PB), pages 151-164.
    7. Hagspiel, Simeon, 2017. "Reliable Electricity: The Effects of System Integration and Cooperative Measures to Make it Work," EWI Working Papers 2017-13, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    8. Bajo-Buenestado, Raúl, 2021. "The effect of blackouts on household electrification status: Evidence from Kenya," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    9. Wolf, André & Wenzel, Lars, 2016. "Regional diversity in the costs of electricity outages: Results for German counties," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(PB), pages 195-205.
    10. Christian Growitsch & Raimund Malischek & Sebastian Nick & Heike Wetzel, 2015. "The Costs of Power Interruptions in Germany: A Regional and Sectoral Analysis," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 16(3), pages 307-323, August.
    11. Jin, Taeyoung & Lee, Tae Eui & Kim, Dowon, 2023. "Value of lost load estimation for the South Korea's manufacturing sector—finding the gap between the supply and demand side," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    12. Lynch, Muireann Á. & Tol, Richard S.J. & O'Malley, Mark J., 2012. "Optimal interconnection and renewable targets for north-west Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 605-617.
    13. Wolf, André & Wenzel, Lars, 2015. "Welfare implications of power rationing: An application to Germany," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 53-62.
    14. Kim, Kayoung & Cho, Youngsang, 2017. "Estimation of power outage costs in the industrial sector of South Korea," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 236-245.
    15. David Newbery and Michael Grubb, 2015. "Security of Supply, the Role of Interconnectors and Option Values : insights from the GB Capacity Auction," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    16. Minnaar, U.J. & Visser, W. & Crafford, J., 2017. "An economic model for the cost of electricity service interruption in South Africa," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 41-50.
    17. Morrissey, Karyn & Plater, Andrew & Dean, Mary, 2018. "The cost of electric power outages in the residential sector: A willingness to pay approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 141-150.
    18. Rahmatallah Poudineh and Tooraj Jamasb, 2017. "Electricity Supply Interruptions: Sectoral Interdependencies and the Cost of Energy Not Served for the Scottish Economy," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    19. Ovaere, Marten & Heylen, Evelyn & Proost, Stef & Deconinck, Geert & Van Hertem, Dirk, 2019. "How detailed value of lost load data impact power system reliability decisions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 1064-1075.
    20. Jamil, Muhammad Hamza & Ullah, Kafait & Saleem, Noor & Abbas, Faisal & Khalid, Hassan Abdullah, 2022. "Did the restructuring of the electricity generation sector increase social welfare in Pakistan?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Energy security; Electricity interruptions; Value of lost load;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:61:y:2013:i:c:p:751-760. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.