In late May, Citigroup released a report titled New Nuclear – the Economics and Politics concluding that prospects for equity investors has further deteriorated.
Continue reading »
Electrons passing through international electricity networks follow the complicated physics of meshed alternating-current grids and do not respect price-zone borders. Correspondingly, scheduling power plants on the basis of national prices without taking into account the real physical networks within and between countries makes it necessary for the system operator to take non-market measures to ensure system stability . This is illustrated by two obvious inefficiencies. First, cross-border transmission lines are rarely fully utilised despite persisting price differentials. Second, electricity very often flows from high- to low-price areas . Overall, the current system is light years away from the theoretically optimal use of European power plants and transmission lines that would characterise a fully functioning single energy market.
Continue reading »
A recurrent theme in the EU security of supply debate is the need to diversify natural gas imports, and to reduce the EU’s dependence on a few large suppliers. Continue reading »
The past two decades have witnessed efforts throughout the world to deregulate electricity markets. The world´s main economies have carried out schemes to put in place efficient and competitive wholesale markets for electricity within the framework of globalization and liberalization. Yet the physical peculiarities of electricity make it a rather complex commodity, and frequent inefficiencies and position abuses by major market players have clearly established that completely free electricity markets are simply not possible. Electricity deregulation instead requires careful monitoring by ad hoc authorities and, rather paradoxically, a whole new regulatory framework.
Continue reading »
In a recent study on the impact of long term call auctioned by EDF on the French day-ahead market we found some quite unexpected results when we analysed the aggregated curves of offers to buy & sell power.
Continue reading »