IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/enejou/v39y2018i6p1-26.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

UK Electricity Market Reform and the Energy Transition:Emerging Lessons

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Grubb
  • David Newbery

Abstract

The 2013 Electricity Market Reform (EMR) was a response to the twin problems of securing efficient finance for a new generation of low carbon investments, and delivering reliability along with a growing share of renewables in its energy-only market. Four EMR instruments combined to revolutionize the sector; stimulating unprecedented technological and structural change. Competitive auctions for both firm capacity and renewable energy have seen prices far lower than predicted and the entry of unexpected new technologies. A carbon price floor displaced coal, whose share fell from 46% in 1995 to 7% in 2017, halving CO2. Renewables grew from under 4% in 2008 to 22% by 2017, projected at 30+% by 2020 despite a political ban on onshore wind. Neither the technological nor regulatory transitions are complete, and the results to date highlight other challenges, notably to transmission pricing and locational signals. EMR is a step forwards, not backwards; but it is not the end of the stor

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Grubb & David Newbery, 2018. "UK Electricity Market Reform and the Energy Transition:Emerging Lessons," The Energy Journal, , vol. 39(6), pages 1-26, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:39:y:2018:i:6:p:1-26
    DOI: 10.5547/01956574.39.6.mgru
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5547/01956574.39.6.mgru
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5547/01956574.39.6.mgru?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Newbery, David, 2016. "Missing money and missing markets: Reliability, capacity auctions and interconnectors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 401-410.
    2. Newbery, David & Pollitt, Michael G. & Ritz, Robert A. & Strielkowski, Wadim, 2018. "Market design for a high-renewables European electricity system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 695-707.
    3. Tashpulatov, Sherzod N., 2015. "Analysis of electricity industry liberalization in Great Britain: How did the bidding behavior of electricity producers change?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 24-34.
    4. Newbery, David M., 1998. "The regulator's review of the English Electricity Pool," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 129-141, November.
    5. Joskow, Paul L., 2008. "Capacity payments in imperfect electricity markets: Need and design," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 159-170, September.
    6. 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).
    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. Michael G. Pollitt, 2019. "The European Single Market in Electricity: An Economic Assessment," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 55(1), pages 63-87, August.
    2. 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.
    3. 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).
    4. 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).
    5. Höschle, Hanspeter & De Jonghe, Cedric & Le Cadre, Hélène & Belmans, Ronnie, 2017. "Electricity markets for energy, flexibility and availability — Impact of capacity mechanisms on the remuneration of generation technologies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 372-383.
    6. Traber, Thure, 2017. "Capacity Remuneration Mechanisms for Reliability in the Integrated European Electricity Market: Effects on Welfare and Distribution through 2023," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-14.
    7. Liu, Shuangquan & Yang, Qiang & Cai, Huaxiang & Yan, Minghui & Zhang, Maolin & Wu, Dianning & Xie, Mengfei, 2019. "Market reform of Yunnan electricity in southwestern China: Practice, challenges and implications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Kraan, Oscar & Kramer, Gert Jan & Nikolic, Igor & Chappin, Emile & Koning, Vinzenz, 2019. "Why fully liberalised electricity markets will fail to meet deep decarbonisation targets even with strong carbon pricing," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 99-110.
    9. Simshauser, Paul, 2024. "On static vs. dynamic line ratings in renewable energy zones," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    10. Juha Teirilä and Robert A. Ritz, 2019. "Strategic Behaviour in a Capacity Market? The New Irish Electricity Market Design," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(The New E).
    11. Mier, Mathias, 2021. "Efficient pricing of electricity revisited," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    12. Li, Yan & Feng, Tian-tian & Liu, Li-li & Zhang, Meng-xi, 2023. "How do the electricity market and carbon market interact and achieve integrated development?--A bibliometric-based review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    13. 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).
    14. Simshauser, P., 2020. "Merchant utilities and boundaries of the firm: vertical integration in energy-only markets," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2039, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    15. Simshauser, P. & Gilmore, J., 2020. "Is the NEM broken? Policy discontinuity and the 2017-2020 investment megacycle," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2048, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    16. Mastropietro, Paolo & Rodilla, Pablo & Rivier, Michel & Batlle, Carlos, 2024. "Reliability options: Regulatory recommendations for the next generation of capacity remuneration mechanisms," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    17. Holmberg, P. & Ritz, R., 2019. "Capacity mechanisms and the technology mix in competitive electricity markets," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1960, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    18. Newbery, David, 2016. "Missing money and missing markets: Reliability, capacity auctions and interconnectors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 401-410.
    19. Naoki Makimoto & Ryuta Takashima, 2023. "Capacity Market and Investments in Power Generations: Risk-Averse Decision-Making of Power Producer," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-19, May.
    20. Shimomura, Mizue & Keeley, Alexander Ryota & Matsumoto, Ken'ichi & Tanaka, Kenta & Managi, Shunsuke, 2024. "Beyond the merit order effect: Impact of the rapid expansion of renewable energy on electricity market price," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PB).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Electricity market design; Capacity auctions; Renewables support;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions

    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:sae:enejou:v:39:y:2018:i:6:p:1-26. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.