Implementation of scarcity pricing without co-optimization in European energy-only balancing markets

Anthony Papavasiliou, Jacques Cartuyvels, Gilles Bertrand and Alain Marien

Utilities Policy, 2023, vol. 81, issue C

Abstract: The implementation of scarcity pricing is underway in the Belgian balancing market. The market design proposed in this paper aims at transposing the first principles of scarcity pricing theory to the boundary conditions of European balancing markets. One relevant boundary condition is the absence of real-time co-optimization of energy and reserves in Europe. As international experience demonstrates, the fact that energy and reserves are not co-optimized in balancing markets does not preclude the implementation of scarcity pricing. The mechanism can be implemented implicitly, and a concrete path has been proposed in the context of the Belgian balancing market. The Belgian design proposal, which is based on the implicit trading of reserve in real time, has raised questions related to financial implications for market stakeholders, the pricing of multiple reserve products, cross-border interactions, the financing of the mechanism, compatibility with EU law, and the coexistence of the proposed mechanism with capacity markets. We attempt to address these questions in the present work by drawing comparisons between the explicit co-optimization of energy and reserves and the implicit trading of reserve capacity.

Keywords: Scarcity pricing; Operating reserve demand curve; Balancing market (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0957178722001527
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:juipol:v:81:y:2023:i:c:s0957178722001527

DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2022.101488

Access Statistics for this article

Utilities Policy is currently edited by Beecher, Janice

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