Independent aggregation in the nordic day-ahead market: What is the welfare impact of socializing supplier compensation payments?

This paper addresses the participation of independent aggregators (IAs) for demand response (DR) in European electricity markets. An IA is an aggregator trading the flexibility of consumers of which it is not the electricity supplier. Particularly, we focus on the controversial issue of a compensati...

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Main Authors: Kārlis Baltputnis, Tim Schittekatte, Zane Broka
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-01-01
Series:Heliyon
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844024176505
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author Kārlis Baltputnis
Tim Schittekatte
Zane Broka
author_facet Kārlis Baltputnis
Tim Schittekatte
Zane Broka
author_sort Kārlis Baltputnis
collection DOAJ
description This paper addresses the participation of independent aggregators (IAs) for demand response (DR) in European electricity markets. An IA is an aggregator trading the flexibility of consumers of which it is not the electricity supplier. Particularly, we focus on the controversial issue of a compensation payment from the IA to the supplier for energy sourcing. Concretely, we explore the potential welfare impacts of partial or full socialization of the compensation payment. For this, a static simulation framework is introduced utilizing historical day-ahead market bid and offer data from the Nordic region to rerun market clearing under different scenarios of compensation rules and with diverse assumptions regarding the DR aggregated by IAs. The overall welfare impacts comprise of changes in producer and consumer surplus, DR consumer welfare impact and the socialized part of the compensation. Based on a case study utilizing data for the full year of 2018, it is found that subsidizing the participation of IAs in the day-ahead market leads to negative overall welfare impacts due to over-incentivization of demand reduction. However, in nearly all investigated cases the socialization of the compensation payment leads to positive impacts on the consumer surplus, driven by reduced electricity wholesale prices. The optimal share of the socialization of the compensation that leads to the highest net consumer benefit depends on many factors, among which the assumptions around activation costs of DR are the most evident. Nevertheless, we argue that the socialization of the supplier compensation should be at least conditional upon the level of the hourly wholesale price (i.e., a “threshold price”) and on DR cost estimates. Only in the case when high shares of untapped DR are relatively cheap, net welfare benefits will result.
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spelling doaj-art-970e895fa2614d1fba6a97434294ddd12025-01-17T04:51:45ZengElsevierHeliyon2405-84402025-01-01111e41619Independent aggregation in the nordic day-ahead market: What is the welfare impact of socializing supplier compensation payments?Kārlis Baltputnis0Tim Schittekatte1Zane Broka2Institute of Power Engineering, Riga Technical University, Azenes iela 12/1, Riga, LV, 1048, Latvia; Corresponding author.MIT Energy Initiative, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA; Florence School of Regulation, European University Institute, Firenze, FI, 50133, Italy; MIT Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USAInstitute of Power Engineering, Riga Technical University, Azenes iela 12/1, Riga, LV, 1048, LatviaThis paper addresses the participation of independent aggregators (IAs) for demand response (DR) in European electricity markets. An IA is an aggregator trading the flexibility of consumers of which it is not the electricity supplier. Particularly, we focus on the controversial issue of a compensation payment from the IA to the supplier for energy sourcing. Concretely, we explore the potential welfare impacts of partial or full socialization of the compensation payment. For this, a static simulation framework is introduced utilizing historical day-ahead market bid and offer data from the Nordic region to rerun market clearing under different scenarios of compensation rules and with diverse assumptions regarding the DR aggregated by IAs. The overall welfare impacts comprise of changes in producer and consumer surplus, DR consumer welfare impact and the socialized part of the compensation. Based on a case study utilizing data for the full year of 2018, it is found that subsidizing the participation of IAs in the day-ahead market leads to negative overall welfare impacts due to over-incentivization of demand reduction. However, in nearly all investigated cases the socialization of the compensation payment leads to positive impacts on the consumer surplus, driven by reduced electricity wholesale prices. The optimal share of the socialization of the compensation that leads to the highest net consumer benefit depends on many factors, among which the assumptions around activation costs of DR are the most evident. Nevertheless, we argue that the socialization of the supplier compensation should be at least conditional upon the level of the hourly wholesale price (i.e., a “threshold price”) and on DR cost estimates. Only in the case when high shares of untapped DR are relatively cheap, net welfare benefits will result.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844024176505Demand responseElectricity marketCompensationIndependent aggregatorRegulationMarket simulation
spellingShingle Kārlis Baltputnis
Tim Schittekatte
Zane Broka
Independent aggregation in the nordic day-ahead market: What is the welfare impact of socializing supplier compensation payments?
Heliyon
Demand response
Electricity market
Compensation
Independent aggregator
Regulation
Market simulation
title Independent aggregation in the nordic day-ahead market: What is the welfare impact of socializing supplier compensation payments?
title_full Independent aggregation in the nordic day-ahead market: What is the welfare impact of socializing supplier compensation payments?
title_fullStr Independent aggregation in the nordic day-ahead market: What is the welfare impact of socializing supplier compensation payments?
title_full_unstemmed Independent aggregation in the nordic day-ahead market: What is the welfare impact of socializing supplier compensation payments?
title_short Independent aggregation in the nordic day-ahead market: What is the welfare impact of socializing supplier compensation payments?
title_sort independent aggregation in the nordic day ahead market what is the welfare impact of socializing supplier compensation payments
topic Demand response
Electricity market
Compensation
Independent aggregator
Regulation
Market simulation
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844024176505
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