Measuring Gains from Regional Dispatch: Coal-Fired Power Plant Utilization and Market Reforms

Stratford Douglas ()

The Energy Journal, 2006, vol. 27, issue 1, 119-138

Abstract: This paper examines changes in the utilization rates (annual capacity factors) of coal-burning power plants in the eastern United States after 1996, when federal regulators opened the transmission system to wholesale power markets. This and other accompanying market-oriented reforms were intended to improve efficiency by encouraging regional dispatch by independent system operators. If the reforms made dispatch more efficient, then utilization rates of high-cost plants should have fallen relative to those of low-cost plants since 1996. A difference-in-difference model using plant-level panel data indicates that relative utilization rates of high-cost plants did indeed fall after 1996, but only in regions with independent system operators. Simulations indicate cost savings on the order of two to three percent.

Keywords: Utilization rates; annual capacity factors; Coal-fired power; Eastern US; efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:enejou:v:27:y:2006:i:1:p:119-138

DOI: 10.5547/ISSN0195-6574-EJ-Vol27-No1-7

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