Effects of wholesale electricity markets on wind generation in the midwestern United States

Steve Dahlke

Energy Policy, 2018, vol. 122, issue C, 358-368

Abstract: This paper estimates the effect of starting the Midcontinent ISO electricity market in 2005 on wind generation. An average increase in wind plant capacity factors of 1.7–2.8 percentage points associated with the start of the market is estimated, relative to neighboring wind plants not in the market. These results are robust to potentially confounding variation associated with wind speed differences determined by weather. Policy makers in regions of increasing wind generation should consider expanding the wholesale market region as a tool to deal with variability of renewable generation. Many technical experts and market participants provide anecdotes that competitive wholesale markets are beneficial for wind energy, this analysis provides the first statistical evidence to support that claim.

Keywords: Electricity market; Renewable energy; Wind energy; Energy economics; Wind generation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q40 Q42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421518304725
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:122:y:2018:i:c:p:358-368

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2018.07.026

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().