Integrating Thermal and Hydro Electricity Markets: Economic and Environmental Costs of not Harmonizing Pricing Rules

Etienne Billette de Villemeur and Pierre-Olivier Pineau

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: The electricity sector is the largest source of GHG emissions in the world, and reducing these emissions would often be costly. However, because electricity markets remain often only integrated at a shallow level (with different pricing regulations), many gains from deeper integration (adoption of marginal cost pricing everywhere) are yet to capture. This paper assesses the benefits of such deep integration between a "hydro" jurisdiction and a "thermal" one. It also underscores the inefficiency of trade when pricing rules differ. Our detailed hourly model, calibrated with real data (from the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, Canada), estimates price, consumption, emissions and welfare changes associated to fully integrating electricity markets, under transmission constraints. A negative abatement cost of $37/tonne of CO2 is found (for more than 1 million tonnes), cleary illustrating the untapped potential of wealth creation in carbon reduction initiatives. Furthermore, given the inefficiency of shallow integration between markets, we find that removing interconnections between markets is a relatively affordable CO2-reduction opportunity, at $21.5/tonne.

Keywords: Market Integration; Regulation; Electricity Trade; Environmental Impacts. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 F15 L50 L94 Q52 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env and nep-reg
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https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/55619/1/MPRA_paper_55619.pdf original version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/59452/1/MPRA_paper_55619.pdf revised version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/69093/9/MPRA_paper_69093.pdf revised version (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Integrating Thermal and Hydro Electricity Markets: Economic and Environmental Costs of not Harmonizing Pricing Rules (2016)
Journal Article: Integrating Thermal and Hydro Electricity Markets: Economic and Environmental Costs of not Harmonizing Pricing Rules (2016)
Working Paper: Integrating Thermal and Hydro Electricity Markets: Economic and Environmental Costs of not Harmonizing Pricing Rules (2016)
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