Electricity Journal最新文献

When households face conditions of energy insecurity, they may qualify and receive assistance from the federal government through the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) program. This program, however, has traditionally been underfunded, leaving a large percentage of potentially eligible households without assistance. Even households that do receive assistance may still have excessive utility bills and energy burden and need other supports that help them address these conditions. Utilities and state utility commissions frequently offer complementary programs through bill assistance, bill adjustments, and debt forgiveness. This review article synthesizes the literature on alternative rate and pricing structures and arrearage management meant to provide energy insecure households in the United States with relief from utility bills and accumulated utility bill debt. We identify beneficial strategies for program design to complement LIHEAP in mitigating energy burdens, as well as how application may lead to unintended and potentially negative consequences. We evaluate these programs along several dimensions to characterize their benefits and drawbacks, including how they address key criteria toward alleviation of energy insecurity. We conclude with a discussion of potential future research topics that can advance our understanding of program design and use for utility bill and debt relief.

This paper uses simple electricity market models to demonstrate the workings of, and problems with, Ontario’s zonal price/two-schedule electricity market design. The roles played by zonal prices, Shadow LMP prices, and out-of-market congestion payments are explained. This market design is compared and contrasted to the much better-known single-schedule designs with LMP pricing used in neighboring U.S. markets. The ways in which congestion payments can, and have been, gamed is highlighted and shown to be special cases of counter-trading "inc-dec games". The bizarre outcomes for interjurisdictional trading arising from Ontario’s use of congestion pricing on its interties combined with uniform pricing on the internal grid are demonstrated. Some gaming problems identified in other markets are reviewed compared to Ontario’s situation. Finally, the paper recaps the system operator’s efforts to remedy the various problems with the market while preparing a fundamental redesign.

We analyzed data for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to assess shoulder seasons – that is, the 45 days of lowest total energy use and peak demand in the spring and fall typically used for power plant maintenance – and whether their occurrence has changed over time. Over the period 1996–2022, the shoulder seasons never started earlier than late March nor later than mid-October, corresponding well with the minimum of total degree days. In the temperature record 1959–2022, the minimum in degree days in the spring moved earlier, from early March to early February, and in the fall moved later, from early to mid-November. Warming temperatures might cause these minima in degree days to merge into a single annual minimum in December or January by the mid‐2040s, a time when there is a non-trivial risk of 1-day record energy use and peak demand from winter storms.

Decentralised flexibility options connected to the distribution grid can be used for congestion management in the transmission grid. Their potential contribution for the transmission grid in Germany is investigated in a scenario analysis for the years 2030, 2040 and 2050.

The model-based evaluation shows that until 2050, cumulative grid congestion increases significantly, which indicates that there is a significant need for grid expansion. Decentralised flexibility options can reduce the cumulative grid congestion of the transmission grid by around 15% in 2030 to around 10% in 2050 if decentralised flexibility options are operated not just in line with the power market, but also with a view to transmission grid requirements. In absolute terms, the benefit of the decentralised flexibility options increases over time.

However, decentralised flexibility options are only suitable in a few cases to fully resolve grid congestions on a certain power line which indicates that grid extension might still be necessary, especially in the long term. Yet decentralised flexibility can still have effects on operational grid management (short-term perspective) and grid expansion needs (medium- and long-term perspective). Therefore, creating a suitable policy framework for the use of decentralised flexibilities is a contribution to achieving climate protection goals.

On the wholesale electricity market, the equilibrium price is set each hour on the basis of the marginal cost of the last power plant called, which is a gas-fired power plant a large part of the time in Europe. The surge in gas prices since the end of 2021 therefore largely explains the rise in the price of electricity. This paper analyses the reform projects proposed within the European Union to curb this surge in wholesale prices. It proposes then to reform the system by opting for pricing based on the weighted average hourly marginal costs, with financial compensation for power plants whose marginal cost is higher than this average. The quantitative study is conducted over the period January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2022 using ENTSOE hourly data. By implementing a compensation framework founded on average marginal costs, the market price experiences a significant decline, resulting in typically negative residual profits. Consequently, the fixed costs associated with the power plant fleet necessitate funding through the capacity market. This approach would enable French electricity consumers to align their payments with the structure of the national electricity fleet, specifically reflecting the average costs of power stations characterized by substantial fixed costs, such as nuclear facilities. The adoption of this proposed system is poised to expedite the energy transition toward a low-carbon economy.

We investigate the differential impact of electricity access on educational outcomes in Uganda using the Uganda National Panel Survey data and employ instrumental panel probit techniques. The findings indicate that reliable electricity is associated with high school enrolment and completion. Also, the results show that education level of household head, marital status, gender, and good housing conditions are associated with better education outcomes. Our results provide evidence for designing supportive policies for increased access to reliable electricity especially among rural households where there are high disproportionately lower education outcomes. Also, the results suggest that policies to eliminate all barriers to reliable electricity access can greatly enhance educational outcomes in Uganda.

For countries like Norway, with abundant offshore wind resources and deep seas, floating wind power technology can play an essential role in the green energy transition. However, this technology is still immature, and the first utility-scale floating offshore wind power projects need substantial support for technology development to be commercially feasible. This study employs an online survey targeting the general population in Norway (N = 1011) to investigate support and opposition toward floating offshore wind power development. The survey includes a discrete choice experiment focusing on policy-relevant factors such as the export of electricity, reducing domestic carbon emissions by electrifying offshore oil and gas platforms, impact on global technology cost trends, and involving domestic offshore industries as key players in the floating offshore wind sector. We find the highest support for developing projects that utilize technology from domestic offshore industries and projects connected to the domestic electricity grid. Projects aimed at reducing domestic carbon emissions by electrifying offshore oil and gas platforms are favored over those for exporting electricity to other countries. A significant impact on future technology costs does not lead to increased support for the project. Projects presented after a framing text focusing on meeting future electricity demand result in a higher willingness to pay for floating offshore wind projects than those presented after a framing text focusing on meeting climate objectives. Respondents opposing all the projects are likely climate skeptics and believe that project developers should bear all the project costs. Norway is expected to play a critical role in developing floating wind power. However, the Norwegians demand clear national benefits to be willing to shoulder the cost of spearheading the floating offshore wind power development. Understanding these preferences is vital for crafting energy policies aligning with public interests and rapidly integrating floating wind power into the green energy transition.

Electricity outage during the 2021 Texas power crisis substantively undermines the state’s economy. To evaluate the economic impacts, we empirically provide a baseline estimate for such an outage with a GDP elasticity of electricity generation of 0.62 and detect that electricity generation significantly Granger causes Texas’ GDP but not vice versa. Our investigation reveals that the 2021 power crisis tends to reduce Texas’ GDP by at least 1.44%. Because power system primarily underpins the economy, our findings imply that Texas should utilize various available technological and regulatory options to strengthen its power system to accommodate more resilience.