IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/juipol/v12y2004i4p253-267.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Insufficient incentives for investment in electricity generations

Author

Listed:
  • Neuhoff, Karsten
  • De Vries, Laurens

Abstract

In theory, competitive electricity markets can provide incentives for efficient investment in generating capacity. We show that if consumers and investors are risk averse, investment is efficient only if investors in generating capacity can sign long-term contracts with consumers. Otherwise the uncovered price risk increases financing costs, reduces equilibrium investment levels, distorts technology choice towards less capital-intensive generation and reduces consumer utility. We observe insufficient levels of long-term contracts in existing markets, possibly because retail companies are not credible counter-parties if their final customer can switch easily. With consumer franchise, retailers can sign long-term contracts, but this solution comes at the expense of the idea of retail competition. Alternative capacity mechanisms to stimulate investment are discussed.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Neuhoff, Karsten & De Vries, Laurens, 2004. "Insufficient incentives for investment in electricity generations," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 253-267, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:12:y:2004:i:4:p:253-267
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0957-1787(04)00068-2
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. Simon Cowan, 2004. "Utility Regulation and Risk Allocation: The Roles of Marginal Cost Pricing and Futures Markets," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 23-40, July.
    2. Green, Richard, 2002. "Retail Competition and Electricity Contracts," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2002 93, Royal Economic Society.
    3. Paul L. Joskow & Edward Kohn, 2002. "A Quantitative Analysis of Pricing Behavior in California's Wholesale Electricity Market During Summer 2000," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 1-35.
    4. Willis, K. G. & Garrod, G. D., 1997. "Electricity supply reliability : Estimating the value of lost load," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 97-103, January.
    5. David M. Newbery, 2002. "Regulatory Challenges to European Electricity Liberalisation," Working Papers EP12, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    6. Woo, Chi-Keung & Lloyd, Debra & Tishler, Asher, 2003. "Electricity market reform failures: UK, Norway, Alberta and California," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(11), pages 1103-1115, September.
    7. Ford, Andrew, 1999. "Cycles in competitive electricity markets: a simulation study of the western United States," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(11), pages 637-658, October.
    8. Littlechild, Stephen C, 2003. "Wholesale Spot Price Pass-Through," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 61-91, January.
    9. Palsson, Anne-Marie, 1996. "Does the degree of relative risk aversion vary with household characteristics?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 771-787, December.
    10. Turvey, R., 2003. "Ensuring adequate generation capacity," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 95-102, June.
    11. Hung-po Chao, 1983. "Peak Load Pricing and Capacity Planning with Demand and Supply Uncertainty," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(1), pages 179-190, Spring.
    12. Hirst, Eric & Hadley, Stan, 1999. "Generation Adequacy: Who Decides?," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 12(8), pages 11-21, October.
    13. Hobbs, Benjamin F. & Iñón, Javier & Stoft, Steven E., 2001. "Installed Capacity Requirements and Price Caps: Oil on the Water, or Fuel on the Fire?," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 14(6), pages 23-34, July.
    14. Shuttleworth, Graham, 1997. "Getting markets to clear," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 2-2, April.
    15. Fraser, Hamish & Lo Passo, Francesco, 2003. "Developing a Capacity Payment Mechanism in Italy," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 16(9), pages 54-58, November.
    16. Anette Boom, 2003. "Investments in Electricity Generating Capacity under Different Market Structures and with Endogenously Fixed Demand," CIG Working Papers SP II 2003-01, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG).
    17. Besser, Janet Gail & Farr, John G. & Tierney, Susan F., 2002. "The Political Economy of Long-Term Generation Adequacy: Why an ICAP Mechanism is Needed as Part of Standard Market Design," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 15(7), pages 53-62.
    18. Paul L. Joskow, 1976. "Contributions to the Theory of Marginal Cost Pricing," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 7(1), pages 197-206, Spring.
    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. Fabien Roques & David M. Newbery & William J. Nuttall, 2004. "Generation Adequacy and Investment Incentives in Britain: from the Pool to NETA," Working Papers EP58, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    2. L.J. de Vries & R.A. Hakvoort, 2004. "The Question of Generation Adequacy in Liberalised Electricity Markets," Working Papers 2004.120, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    3. Meade, Richard, 2005. "Electricity Investment and Security of Supply in Liberalized Electricity Systems," Working Paper Series 3859, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    4. repec:vuw:vuwscr:18954 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Meade, Richard, 2005. "Electricity Investment and Security of Supply in Liberalized Electricity Systems," Working Paper Series 18954, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    6. De Vries, Laurens J., 2007. "Generation adequacy: Helping the market do its job," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 20-35, March.
    7. Woo, C.K. & King, M. & Tishler, A. & Chow, L.C.H., 2006. "Costs of electricity deregulation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 747-768.
    8. Tishler, Asher & Milstein, Irena & Woo, Chi-Keung, 2008. "Capacity commitment and price volatility in a competitive electricity market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 1625-1647, July.
    9. Woo, C.K. & Zarnikau, J. & Moore, J. & Horowitz, I., 2011. "Wind generation and zonal-market price divergence: Evidence from Texas," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 3928-3938, July.
    10. Horowitz, I. & Woo, C.K., 2006. "Designing Pareto-superior demand-response rate options," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1040-1051.
    11. Bublitz, Andreas & Keles, Dogan & Zimmermann, Florian & Fraunholz, Christoph & Fichtner, Wolf, 2018. "A survey on electricity market design: Insights from theory and real-world implementations of capacity remuneration mechanisms," Working Paper Series in Production and Energy 27, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute for Industrial Production (IIP).
    12. Tishler, A. & Woo, C.K., 2006. "Likely failure of electricity deregulation: Explanation with application to Israel," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 845-856.
    13. Olsina, Fernando & Pringles, Rolando & Larisson, Carlos & Garcés, Francisco, 2014. "Reliability payments to generation capacity in electricity markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 211-224.
    14. Finon, Dominique, 2006. "Incentives to invest in liberalised electricity industries in the North and South. Differences in the need for suitable institutional arrangements," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 601-618, March.
    15. Finon, Dominique & Pignon, Virginie, 2008. "Electricity and long-term capacity adequacy: The quest for regulatory mechanism compatible with electricity market," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 143-158, September.
    16. Bublitz, Andreas & Keles, Dogan & Zimmermann, Florian & Fraunholz, Christoph & Fichtner, Wolf, 2019. "A survey on electricity market design: Insights from theory and real-world implementations of capacity remuneration mechanisms," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1059-1078.
    17. Keppler, Jan Horst & Quemin, Simon & Saguan, Marcelo, 2022. "Why the sustainable provision of low-carbon electricity needs hybrid markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    18. Cramton, Peter & Stoft, Steven, 2005. "A Capacity Market that Makes Sense," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(7), pages 43-54.
    19. Fischer, Ronald & Serra, Pablo, 2003. "Energy prices in the presence of plant indivisibilities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 303-314, July.
    20. Simshauser, Paul, 2022. "Rooftop solar PV and the peak load problem in the NEM's Queensland region," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    21. Mier, Mathias, 2021. "Efficient pricing of electricity revisited," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • D40 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - General
    • D52 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Incomplete Markets
    • 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:juipol:v:12:y:2004:i:4:p:253-267. 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: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/utilities-policy .

    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.