IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/juipol/v40y2016icp1-14.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Interconnecting an isolated electricity system to the European market: The case of Malta

Author

Listed:
  • Ries, Jan
  • Gaudard, Ludovic
  • Romerio, Franco

Abstract

The long-term European Union (EU) energy policy increasingly requires member countries to reform existing power systems, including those of small island states. These are commonly isolated electricity systems that rely heavily on imported fossil fuels. Interconnections with mainland power systems are an alternative to offset the exposure to volatile fuel prices. This paper studies the 200-MW (MW) subsea transmission cable between the EU island member state of Malta and Sicily that was inaugurated on April 2015. Our main purpose is to examine whether and to what extent Malta's vulnerability to distinct oil price scenarios can be overcome with this new interconnector. We describe the process used to simulate the merit order for both Malta's isolated and interconnected electric generation setup. The algorithm used provides the average electricity spot price and economic scarcity rent of electricity imports and exports. The main finding is that the Malta-Sicily interconnector does not necessarily lower electricity prices for Malta's consumers. However, some scenarios, notably the incorporation of natural gas in Malta's future generation portfolio, achieve win–win situations for both consumer and supplier. The Malta case study shows that cable impacts depend on the installed generation capacity, oil price, and market design.

Suggested Citation

  • Ries, Jan & Gaudard, Ludovic & Romerio, Franco, 2016. "Interconnecting an isolated electricity system to the European market: The case of Malta," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1-14.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:40:y:2016:i:c:p:1-14
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2016.03.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0957178716300698
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jup.2016.03.001?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mitchell Rothman, 2000. "Measuring and Apportioning Rents from Hydroelectric Power Developments," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15187.
    2. Ketterer, Janina C., 2014. "The impact of wind power generation on the electricity price in Germany," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 270-280.
    3. Turvey, Ralph, 2006. "Interconnector economics," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(13), pages 1457-1472, September.
    4. Cartea, Álvaro & González-Pedraz, Carlos, 2012. "How much should we pay for interconnecting electricity markets? A real options approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 14-30.
    5. Banfi, Silvia & Filippini, Massimo, 2010. "Resource rent taxation and benchmarking--A new perspective for the Swiss hydropower sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2302-2308, May.
    6. McInerney, Celine & Bunn, Derek, 2013. "Valuation anomalies for interconnector transmission rights," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 565-578.
    7. Sensfuß, Frank & Ragwitz, Mario & Genoese, Massimo, 2008. "The merit-order effect: A detailed analysis of the price effect of renewable electricity generation on spot market prices in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 3076-3084, August.
    8. Perez, Yannick & Ramos Real, Francisco Javier, 2008. "How to make a European integrated market in small and isolated electricity systems? The case of the Canary Islands," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 4159-4167, November.
    9. Rothman, M., 2000. "Measuring and Apportioning Rents from Hydroelectric Power Development," World Bank - Discussion Papers 419, World Bank.
    10. Fsadni, M. & Mallia, E.A., 2006. "The interaction of wind power generation with electricity demand in the context of a small grid," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 811-819.
    11. Yannick Perez & Francisco Javier Ramos-Real, 2008. "How to Make A European Market in Small and Isolated Electricity Systems? The Case of Canary Islands," Post-Print hal-01660439, HAL.
    12. AfDB AfDB, . "AfDB Group Annual Report 2008," Annual Report, African Development Bank, number 64 edited by Koua Louis Kouakou.
    13. Kotzebue, Julia R. & Bressers, Hans Th.A. & Yousif, Charles, 2010. "Spatial misfits in a multi-level renewable energy policy implementation process on the Small Island State of Malta," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 5967-5976, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vijay, Avinash & Fouquet, Nicolas & Staffell, Iain & Hawkes, Adam, 2017. "The value of electricity and reserve services in low carbon electricity systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 111-123.
    2. Noel Rapa, "undated". "The Macroeconomic Effects of Efficiency Gains in Electricity Production in Malta," CBM Policy Papers PP/05/2017, Central Bank of Malta.
    3. Papadopoulos, Agis M., 2020. "Renewable energies and storage in small insular systems: Potential, perspectives and a case study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 103-114.
    4. Gaudard, Ludovic & Madani, Kaveh, 2019. "Energy storage race: Has the monopoly of pumped-storage in Europe come to an end?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 22-29.
    5. Sapio, Alessandro & Spagnolo, Nicola, 2020. "The effect of a new power cable on energy prices volatility spillovers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    6. Rettig, E. & Fischhendler, I. & Schlecht, F., 2023. "The meaning of energy islands: Towards a theoretical framework," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    7. Sapio, Alessandro, 2019. "Greener, more integrated, and less volatile? A quantile regression analysis of Italian wholesale electricity prices," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 452-469.
    8. Barrera-Santana, J. & Sioshansi, Ramteen, 2023. "An optimization framework for capacity planning of island electricity systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    9. Olivia Francesca B. Agua & Robert Joseph A. Basilio & Mc Erschad D. Pabillan & Michael T. Castro & Philipp Blechinger & Joey D. Ocon, 2020. "Decentralized versus Clustered Microgrids: An Energy Systems Study for Reliable Off-Grid Electrification of Small Islands," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-22, August.
    10. Rafal Weron & Florian Ziel, 2018. "Electricity price forecasting," HSC Research Reports HSC/18/08, Hugo Steinhaus Center, Wroclaw University of Technology.
    11. Gaudard, Ludovic & Avanzi, Francesco & De Michele, Carlo, 2018. "Seasonal aspects of the energy-water nexus: The case of a run-of-the-river hydropower plant," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 604-612.
    12. Aaron George Grech & Noel Rapa, 2019. "A reassessment of external demand’s contribution to Malta’s economic growth," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 8(1), pages 1-13, December.

    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. Samarth Kumar & David Schönheit & Matthew Schmidt & Dominik Möst, 2019. "Parsing the Effects of Wind and Solar Generation on the German Electricity Trade Surplus," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-17, September.
    2. Bell, William Paul & Wild, Phillip & Foster, John & Hewson, Michael, 2017. "Revitalising the wind power induced merit order effect to reduce wholesale and retail electricity prices in Australia," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 224-241.
    3. Massarutto, Antonio & Pontoni, Federico, 2015. "Rent seizing and environmental concerns: A parametric valuation of the Italian hydropower sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 31-40.
    4. Sébastien Phan & Fabien Roques, 2015. "Is the depressive effect of renewables on power prices contagious? A cross border econometric analysis," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1527, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    5. Olukunle O. Owolabi & Kathryn Lawson & Sanhita Sengupta & Yingsi Huang & Lan Wang & Chaopeng Shen & Mila Getmansky Sherman & Deborah A. Sunter, 2022. "A Robust Statistical Analysis of the Role of Hydropower on the System Electricity Price and Price Volatility," Papers 2203.02089, arXiv.org.
    6. Banfi, Silvia & Filippini, Massimo, 2010. "Resource rent taxation and benchmarking--A new perspective for the Swiss hydropower sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2302-2308, May.
    7. Csereklyei, Zsuzsanna & Qu, Songze & Ancev, Tihomir, 2019. "The effect of wind and solar power generation on wholesale electricity prices in Australia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 358-369.
    8. Thao Pham & Killian Lemoine, 2020. "Impacts of subsidized renewable electricity generation on spot market prices in Germany : Evidence from a GARCH model with panel data," Working Papers hal-02568268, HAL.
    9. repec:dui:wpaper:1504 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Browne, Oliver & Poletti, Stephen & Young, David, 2015. "How does market power affect the impact of large scale wind investment in 'energy only' wholesale electricity markets?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 17-27.
    11. Auer, Benjamin R., 2016. "How does Germany's green energy policy affect electricity market volatility? An application of conditional autoregressive range models," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 621-628.
    12. Yris D. FONDJA WANDJI & Jules SADEFO KAMDEM, 2020. "La rente hydroélectrique en Afrique : Une évaluation avec taxation et optimisation des coûts totaux de production," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 52, pages 147-170.
    13. Diana Bottger & Philipp Hartel, 2021. "On Wholesale Electricity Prices and Market Values in a Carbon-Neutral Energy System," Papers 2105.01127, arXiv.org.
    14. Gürtler, Marc & Paulsen, Thomas, 2018. "The effect of wind and solar power forecasts on day-ahead and intraday electricity prices in Germany," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 150-162.
    15. Kyritsis, Evangelos & Andersson, Jonas & Serletis, Apostolos, 2017. "Electricity prices, large-scale renewable integration, and policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 550-560.
    16. P Codani & Marc Petit & Yannick Perez, 2018. "Innovation et règles inefficaces : le cas des véhicules électriques," Post-Print halshs-01980639, HAL.
    17. Meus, Jelle & De Vits, Sarah & S'heeren, Nele & Delarue, Erik & Proost, Stef, 2021. "Renewable electricity support in perfect markets: Economic incentives under diverse subsidy instruments," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    18. Mahringer, Steffen & Fuess, Roland & Prokopczuk, Marcel, 2015. "Electricity Market Coupling and the Pricing of Transmission Rights: An Option-based Approach," Working Papers on Finance 1512, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.
    19. Macedo, Daniela Pereira & Marques, António Cardoso & Damette, Olivier, 2020. "The impact of the integration of renewable energy sources in the electricity price formation: is the Merit-Order Effect occurring in Portugal?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    20. Rious, Vincent & Perez, Yannick, 2014. "Review of supporting scheme for island powersystem storage," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 754-765.
    21. Banfi, Silvia & Filippini, Massimo & Mueller, Adrian, 2005. "An estimation of the Swiss hydropower rent," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 927-937, May.

    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:40:y:2016:i:c:p:1-14. 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.