This paper analyzes the effects of start-up costs of different technologies in providing electricity power. We explicitly solve a simplified linear formulation of the dispatch problem. Transforming this primal problem, we show that dominated technologies should be used only in the case of...

Many technologies in energy, transportation, and telecommunications require large infrastructure systems to deliver benefits to adopters and society. Policymakers seeking to promote the diffusion of infrastructure-dependent technologies are often confronted with the ``chicken-and-egg" problem:...