Electricity Trade Patterns in a Network: Evidence from the Ontario Market

We investigate whether trade has any effect on the price formation process in a specific electricity market, and identify interconnected markets that have higher impacts on prices in that market. In particular, we study Ontario wholesale electricity market and its trade with 12 interconnected markets including New York, Michigan, and Minnesota markets. We find that imports are unambiguously related to prices, while exports are not. Furthermore, imports have a positive and significant relationship with prices. We argue that the results are associated with auction design, production constraints, and technological differences. Out of the 12 studied interties, only three have a significant impact on price, two of which are the largest ones.