IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/esr/wpaper/wp372.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Goldilocks and the Three Electricity Prices: Are Irish Prices "Just Right"?

Author

Listed:
  • Devitt, Conor
  • Diffney, Seán
  • FitzGerald, John
  • Malaguzzi Valeri, Laura
  • Tuohy, Aidan

Abstract

In this paper we analyse the 2008 electricity price in the Irish All-Island Market. We test whether this price is 'efficient' by comparing it to the electricity price in Great Britain. This analysis suggests that around ?16 per MWh of the difference in wholesale prices between Ireland and Britain is due to differences in generating technology. The new wholesale electricity market for the island of Ireland appears to be working well ? it is producing a wholesale price that approximates the long run marginal cost that would apply in a large liquid competitive market. In the British market the wholesale price appears to be below the long run marginal cost of producing electricity. Retail margins in Great Britain are high, especially for households. Only some of this margin compensates vertically integrated utilities for the low wholesale price. In the Republic of Ireland the retail margin was probably also higher than it should have been.

Suggested Citation

  • Devitt, Conor & Diffney, Seán & FitzGerald, John & Malaguzzi Valeri, Laura & Tuohy, Aidan, 2011. "Goldilocks and the Three Electricity Prices: Are Irish Prices "Just Right"?," Papers WP372, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp372
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.esri.ie/pubs/WP372.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tuohy, Aidan & Bazilian, Morgan & Doherty, Ronan & Gallachóir, Brian Ó & O'Malley, Mark, 2009. "Burning peat in Ireland: An electricity market dispatch perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 3035-3042, August.
    2. Helm, Dieter, 2004. "Energy, the State, and the Market: British Energy Policy since 1979," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199270743.
    3. Dieter Helm, 2010. "Government failure, rent-seeking, and capture: the design of climate change policy," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 26(2), pages 182-196, Summer.
    4. Callan, Tim & Keane, Claire & Walsh, John R. & Lane, Marguerita, 2010. "From Data to Policy Analysis: Tax-Benefit Modelling using SILC 2008," Papers WP359, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    5. Dieter Helm, 2009. "Infrastructure investment, the cost of capital, and regulation: an assessment," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 25(3), pages 307-326, Autumn.
    6. Lunn, Pete & Duffy, David, 2010. "The Euro Through the Looking-Glass: Perceived Inflation Following the 2002 Currency Changeover," Papers WP338, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    7. Tol, Richard S.J., 2012. "A cost–benefit analysis of the EU 20/20/2020 package," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 288-295.
    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. O'Mahoney, Amy & Denny, Eleanor, 2013. "Electricity prices and generator behaviour in gross pool electricity markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 628-637.
    2. repec:aen:journl:eeep4_1_valeri is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Paul Deane, John FitzGerald, Laura Malaguzzi Valeri, Aidan Tuohy and Darragh Walsh, 2015. "Irish and British electricity prices: what recent history implies for future prices," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    4. Gorecki, Paul K., 2011. "The Internal EU Electricity Market: Implications for Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS23.
    5. McInerney, Celine & Bunn, Derek, 2013. "Valuation anomalies for interconnector transmission rights," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 565-578.

    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. Anthoff, David & Rose, Steven & Tol, Richard S. J. & Waldhoff, Stephanie, 2011. "Regional and sectoral estimates of the social cost of carbon: An application of FUND," Economics Discussion Papers 2011-18, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    2. Paul Deane, John FitzGerald, Laura Malaguzzi Valeri, Aidan Tuohy and Darragh Walsh, 2015. "Irish and British electricity prices: what recent history implies for future prices," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    3. repec:aen:journl:eeep4_1_valeri is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Eliasson, Jonas & Proost, Stef, 2015. "Is sustainable transport policy sustainable?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 92-100.
    5. Gorecki, Paul K. & Lyons, Sean & Tol, Richard S.J., 2011. "Public policy towards the sale of state assets in troubled times: Lessons from the Irish experience," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 193-201.
    6. Gawel, Erik & Strunz, Sebastian & Lehmann, Paul, 2014. "A public choice view on the climate and energy policy mix in the EU — How do the emissions trading scheme and support for renewable energies interact?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 175-182.
    7. Gorecki, Paul K. & Tol, Richard S. J., 2011. "The Climate Change Response Bill 2010: An Assessment," Papers WP371, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    8. Faroque Ahmed & Md. Jamal Hossain & Mohammad Tareque, 2020. "Investigating the Roles of Physical Infrastructure, Financial Development and Human Capital on Economic Growth in Bangladesh," Journal of Infrastructure Development, India Development Foundation, vol. 12(2), pages 154-175, December.
    9. Holly Sutherland & Francesco Figari, 2013. "EUROMOD: the European Union tax-benefit microsimulation model," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 1(6), pages 4-26.
    10. Mayeres, Inge & Proost, Stef & Delhaye, Eef & Novelli, Philippe & Conijn, Sjaak & Gómez-Jiménez, Inmaculada & Rivas-Brousse, Daniel, 2023. "Climate ambitions for European aviation: Where can sustainable aviation fuels bring us?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    11. Ortega, Margarita & del Río, Pablo & Montero, Eduardo A., 2013. "Assessing the benefits and costs of renewable electricity. The Spanish case," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 294-304.
    12. Cathal O’Donoghue & Denisa M Sologon & Iryna Kyzyma & John McHale, 2021. "A Microsimulation Analysis of the Distributional Impact over the Three Waves of the COVID-19 Crisis in Ireland," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 14(2), pages 81-105.
    13. Kooten, G. Cornelis Van, 2022. "The Impact of Carbon on Optimal Forest Rotation Ages: An Application to Coastal Forests in British Columbia," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322612, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Johansson, Per-Olov, 2015. "Tradable Permits in Cost-Benefit Analysis," SSE Working Paper Series in Economics 2015:3, Stockholm School of Economics.
    15. Gawel, Erik & Lehmann, Paul & Purkus, Alexandra & Söderholm, Patrik & Witte, Katherina, 2017. "Rationales for technology-specific RES support and their relevance for German policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 16-26.
    16. Fridstrøm, Lasse, 2017. "From innovation to penetration: Calculating the energy transition time lag for motor vehicles," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 487-502.
    17. Kattirtzi, Michael & Ketsopoulou, Ioanna & Watson, Jim, 2021. "Incumbents in transition? The role of the ‘Big Six’ energy companies in the UK," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(PA).
    18. Espinosa, María Paz & Pizarro-Irizar, Cristina, 2018. "Is renewable energy a cost-effective mitigation resource? An application to the Spanish electricity market," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 902-914.
    19. Robert Hahn & Robert Ritz, 2014. "Optimal Altruism in Public Good Provision," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1403, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    20. Diyun Huang & Dirk Van Hertem, 2018. "Cross-Border Electricity Transmission Network Investment: Perspective and Risk Framework of Third Party Investors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-13, September.
    21. T. Jamasb & R. Nepal, 2015. "Issues and Options in the Economic Regulation of European Network Security," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, Intersentia, vol. 16(1), pages 2-23, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    electricity/Ireland/cost/Republic of Ireland;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:esr:wpaper:wp372. 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: Sarah Burns (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/esriiie.html .

    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.