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Cournot competition in wholesale electricity markets: The Nordic power exchange, Nord Pool

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  • Lundin, Erik
  • Tangerås, Thomas P.

Abstract

Horizontal shifts in bid curves observed in wholesale electricity markets are consistent with Cournot competition. Quantity competition reduces the informational requirements associated with evaluating market performance because the price-cost margins of all producers then depend on the same inverse residual demand curve instead of one for each firm. We apply the model to the day-ahead market of the Nordic power exchange, Nord Pool, for the years 2011-13. We reject the null hypothesis of perfect competition in all specifications. Results suggest that the average price-cost margin across the sample period was around four percent.

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  • Lundin, Erik & Tangerås, Thomas P., 2020. "Cournot competition in wholesale electricity markets: The Nordic power exchange, Nord Pool," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:indorg:v:68:y:2020:i:c:s0167718719300645
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2019.102536
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    Cited by:

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    3. Persson, Lars & Tangerås, Thomas, 2018. "Transmission Network Investment across National Borders: The Liberalized Nordic Electricity Market," Working Paper Series 1242, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    4. Chris Johnathon & Ashish Prakash Agalgaonkar & Joel Kennedy & Chayne Planiden, 2021. "Analyzing Electricity Markets with Increasing Penetration of Large-Scale Renewable Power Generation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-15, November.
    5. Bowei Guo & Giorgio Castagneto Gissey, 2019. "Cost Pass-through in the British Wholesale Electricity Market: Implications of Brexit and the ETS reform," Working Papers EPRG1937, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    6. Farzad Hassanzadeh Moghimi & Yihsu Chen & Afzal S. Siddiqui, 2023. "Flexible supply meets flexible demand: prosumer impact on strategic hydro operations," Computational Management Science, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 1-35, December.
    7. Hassanzadeh Moghimi, Farzad & Boomsma, Trine K. & Siddiqui, Afzal S., 2024. "Transmission planning in an imperfectly competitive power sector with environmental externalities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    8. Simona Bigerna & Carlo Andrea Bollino & Maria Chiara D’Errico & Paolo Polinori, 2023. "A new design for market power monitoring in the electricity market. A simulation for Italy," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(1), pages 285-317, April.
    9. Erik Lundin, 2021. "Market Power and Joint Ownership: Evidence from Nuclear Plants in Sweden," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(3), pages 485-536, September.
    10. Jåstad, Eirik Ogner & Trotter, Ian M. & Bolkesjø, Torjus Folsland, 2022. "Long term power prices and renewable energy market values in Norway – A probabilistic approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    11. Marija Miletić & Hrvoje Pandžić & Dechang Yang, 2020. "Operating and Investment Models for Energy Storage Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-33, September.
    12. David P. Brown & David E. M. Sappington, 2022. "Vertical integration and capacity investment in the electricity sector," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 193-226, February.
    13. Ryan Y. Lin & Siddhartha Ojha & Kevin Cai & Maxwell F. Chen, 2024. "Strategic Collusion of LLM Agents: Market Division in Multi-Commodity Competitions," Papers 2410.00031, arXiv.org.
    14. He, Qiao-Chu & Yang, Yun & Bai, Lingquan & Zhang, Baosen, 2020. "Smart energy storage management via information systems design," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    15. Tangerås, Thomas & Wolak, Frank A., 2017. "The Competitive Effects of Linking Electricity Markets Across Space and Time," Working Paper Series 1184, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    16. Brown, David P. & Eckert, Andrew & Silveira, Douglas, 2023. "Screening for collusion in wholesale electricity markets: A literature review," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cournot competition; Market design; Market performance; Nord Pool; Walrasian auction; Wholesale electricity market;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions

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