Unexpected problems sometimes arise when governments attempt to introduce competition. The problem considered herein is market power and its exercise during the California electricity crisis of 2000–2001. In introducing competition, both transitional and long-run opportunities for firms...

This paper analyzes the interactions between competitive (wholesale) spot, retail, and forward markets and vertical integration in electricity markets. We develop an equilibrium model with producers, retailers, and traders to study and quantify the impact of forward markets and vertical...

Since the energy markets liberalization at the beginning of the 1990s in Europe, electricity monopolies have gone through a profound evolution process. From an industrial organization point of view, they lost their monopoly on their historical business, but gained the capacity to develop in any...

This paper analyzes the interactions between vertical integration and (wholesale) spot, forward and retail markets in risk management. We develop an equilibrium model that fits electricity markets well. We point out that vertical integration and forward hedging are two separate levers for demand...

The paper investigates how proposed reforms on policies to maintain generation adequacy and encourage clean technology investments in a number of European countries modify the role of the market. In these reforms the government, regulator and system operat or take on explicit planning and...

Abstract: We analyze a two-stage game of strategic firms facing uncertain demand and exerting market power in decentralized electricity markets. These firms choose their generation capacities at the first stage while anticipating a perfectly competitive future electricity spot market outcome at...

In the most liberalized electricity markets, abuse of market power is a concern related to oligopolistic market structures, flaws in market architecture, and the specific characteristics of electricity generation and demand. Several methods have been suggested to improve the competitiveness of...

The liberalization of the electricity sector increases the need for realistic and robust models of the oligopolistic interaction of electricity firms. This paper compares the two most popular models: Cournot and the Supply Function Equilibrium (SFE), and tests which model describes the observed...

The decarbonisation of electricity generation presents policy-makers in many countries with the delicate task of balancing initiatives for technological change whilst maintaining a commitment to market liberalisation. Despite the theoretical attractions, it has become debatable whether carbon...

Competition among producers within an integrated electricity system is impeded by any limited transmission capacity there may be at its borders. Two alternative market mechanisms have recently been designed to organize the allocation of scarce transmission capacity at cross-border level: (i) the...