The paper examines the possible interactions of various policy proposals to introduce carbon taxation, adjust the domestic price of gas to export parity and build a major electricity interconnector, and their impact on carbon emissions and the fuel mix of the Russian electricity supply industry. Without raising gas prices, a carbon tax of €25/tonne CO2 reduces emissions by 13% and the output of coal-fired plant by nearly 50%, with the major impact at €6.3-12.5/tonne. Moving gas prices to export parity substantially offsets this effect, and requires higher carbon taxes to reduce emissions by the same amount, as does building the prospective interconnector “Ural-Siberia”.
Keywords: Carbon tax, Russian electricity industry, Gas tariffs, Export parity
Volume 2
European Electricity Market Reforms: The “Visible Hand” of Public Coordination
The paper investigates how proposed reforms on policies to maintain generation adequacy and to encourage clean technology investments in a number of European countries, modify the role of the market. This is reduced as the government, regulator and system operator take on explicit responsibility through the introduction of capacity mechanisms and long-term support for clean…
EU ETS Phase 3 Benchmarks – Implications and Potential Flaws
In Phase 3 (2013-20) of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, the allocation methodology has shifted from grandfathering to a combination of auctioning and benchmark-based free allocation in the framework of Community-wide rules. Free allocation will apply mainly to non-electricity generators, and will decrease linearly throughout the phase with a view of ending free allocation…
Technological Advance in Cooling Systems at U.S. Power Plants
Prior to adoption of the 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA) most U.S. power plants used once-through cooling water systems that discharged large quantities of warm water. This resulted in significant amounts of thermal pollution in neighboring bodies of water. The CWA essentially mandated recirculating systems for new facilities. This paper investigates whether there was technological…
Book Reviews
Editorial
Capacity Markets – Lessons Learned from the First Decade
Capacity markets were introduced in the U.S. in the late 1990s as a means to ensure “resource adequacy” in liberalized electricity markets where generation must be built by merchant investors rather than regulated entities. This paper provides a general introduction to these markets: why they exist, how they function, how well they have performed in…
Capacity Market Fundamentals
Electricity capacity markets work in tandem with electricity energy markets to ensure that investors build adequate capacity in line with consumer preferences for reliability. The need for a capacity market stems from several market failures. One particularly notorious problem of electricity markets is low demand flexibility. Most customers are unaware of the real time prices…
Capacity Markets in PJM
The PJM capacity market evolved from a mechanism to support fair and efficient retail competition, to a core market design component implemented to provide adequate revenue to attract sufficient supply and demand side resources to meet PJM’s administrative reliability criteria. The lessons learned in the evolution of the PJM capacity market illustrate issues that are…
Electricity Scarcity Pricing Through Operating Reserves
Suppressed prices in real-time markets provide inadequate incentives for both generation investment and active participation by demand bidding. An operating reserve demand curve developed from first principles would improve reliability, support adequate scarcity pricing, and be straightforward to implement within the framework of economic dispatch. This approach would be fully compatible with other market-oriented policies….