Decarbonization goals of the European Commission foresee different future scenarios for the European power market of which all are exceeding 60% renewables in the power system.3 High shares of intermittent renewable sources require significant changes to the physical system and impact the...

German companies view high and uncertain electricity prices a major challenge. A Renewable Energy Pool (RE-Pool), wherein the favorable conditions of competitive tenders for new wind and solar power projects are passed on to electricity consumers, could hedge such price risks. Consumers'...

A shift from zonal pricing to smaller zones and nodal pricing improves efficiency and security of system operation. Resulting price changes do however also shift profits and surplus between and across generation and load. As individual actorscan lose, they might oppose any reform. We explore how...

The German Federal Government passed the "Easter Package" in July 2022, which envisages a number of measures for the expansion of renewable energy sources. The package retains sliding market premiums as a remuneration mechanism, which protect electricity producers unilaterally, while contracts...

Gas-fired power plants constitute a direct and important link between the gas and the electricity sectors and thus between the Target Models for electricity and gas. As the need for a flexible operation of gas-fired power plants will increase in tomorrow's low-carbon power markets, so also will...

Long-term energy contracts have featured prominently in many decisions of the European Commission to support the opening of the electricity markets. Contracts were seen to foreclose the market hence the Commission comprehensively unwound pre-existing long-term contracts and formulated strict...

Strategic reserves are in principle well suited to address both generation adequacy and system security in power markets. Depending on the power system and on the network topology, a strategic reserve has to be designed to fulfill both objectives. For the design of a strategic reserve (SR) in...

Renewable energy installations are rapidly gaining market share due to falling technology costs and supportive policies. Meanwhile, the energy price crisis resulting from the Russian-Ukrainian war has shifted the energy policy debate toward the question of how consumers can benefit more from the...

Current EU short-term market designs for electricity face several challenges in (i) securing efficient system operation (ii) unlocking the full potential of flexible resources and (iii) fostering effective use of transmission capacity. For a gradual reform of market design and to guarantee...