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Information and Transparency in Wholesale Electricity Markets: Evidence from Alberta

Author

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  • Brown, David P.

    (University of Alberta, Department of Economics)

  • Eckert, Andrew

    (University of Alberta, Department of Economics)

  • Lin, James

    (Alberta Department of Energy, Government of Alberta)

Abstract

We examine the role of information transparency in Alberta's wholesale electricity market. Using data on firms' bidding behavior, we analyze whether firms utilize information revealed in near real-time through the Historical Trading Report (HTR), which is released 10 minutes after each hour and contains a complete (de-identified) list of every firms' bids into the wholesale market from the previous hour. We demonstrate that firms are often able to identify the offers of specific rivals by offer patterns adopted by those firms. For one of these firms, these patterns are associated with higher offer prices. This is consistent with allegations by Alberta's Market Surveillance Administrator that firms may be utilizing unique bidding patterns to reveal their identities to their rivals to elevate market prices. We show that certain firms respond to rival offer changes with a lag consistent with responding to information revealed through the HTR, and that they respond differently to different firms, suggesting that they are able to infer identification.

Suggested Citation

  • Brown, David P. & Eckert, Andrew & Lin, James, 2018. "Information and Transparency in Wholesale Electricity Markets: Evidence from Alberta," Working Papers 2018-2, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:albaec:2018_002
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. David BENATIA & Etienne BILLETTE de VILLEMEUR, 2019. "Strategic Reneging in Sequential Imperfect Markets," Working Papers 2019-19, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    2. David P. Brown & Andrew Eckert, 2022. "Pricing Patterns in Wholesale Electricity Markets: Unilateral Market Power or Coordinated Behavior?," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(1), pages 168-216, March.
    3. Brown, David P. & Eckert, Andrew, 2021. "Analyzing firm behavior in restructured electricity markets: Empirical challenges with a residual demand analysis," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    4. Bergheimer, Stefan & Cantillon, Estelle & Reguant, Mar, 2023. "Price and quantity discovery without commitment," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    5. Viktorija Bobinaite & Marialaura Di Somma & Giorgio Graditi & Irina Oleinikova, 2019. "The Regulatory Framework for Market Transparency in Future Power Systems under the Web-of-Cells Concept," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-26, March.
    6. Esmaeili Aliabadi, Danial & Chan, Katrina, 2022. "The emerging threat of artificial intelligence on competition in liberalized electricity markets: A deep Q-network approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 325(C).
    7. Brown, David P. & Eckert, Andrew & Silveira, Douglas, 2023. "Screening for Collusion in Wholesale Electricity Markets: A Review of the Literature," Working Papers 2023-7, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    8. David P. Brown & Andrew Eckert & James Lin, 2018. "Information and transparency in wholesale electricity markets: evidence from Alberta," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 292-330, December.
    9. Jihad C. Elnaboulsi & Wassim Daher & Yiğit Sağlam, 2023. "Environmental taxation, information precision, and information sharing," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 25(2), pages 301-341, April.
    10. Brown, David P. & Cajueiro, Daniel O. & Eckert, Andrew & Silveira, Douglas, 2024. "Evaluating the Role of Information Disclosure on Bidding Behavior in Wholesale Electricity Markets," Working Papers 2024-2, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    11. Derek E. H. Olmstead & Matthew J. Ayres & Peter B. R. Lomas, 2020. "Offer Price Information and the Exercise of Market Power: The Effect of the Publication of the Historical Trading Report on Competition in the Alberta Electricity Market," The Energy Journal, , vol. 41(1_suppl), pages 141-166, June.
    12. Brown, David P. & Cajueiro, Daniel O. & Eckert, Andrew & Silveira, Douglas, 2023. "Information and Transparency: Using Machine Learning to Detect Communication," Working Papers 2023-6, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    13. 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

    Electricity; Market Power; Information; Regulation; Antitrust;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • L40 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - General
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy

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