Siddiqui, AS;
Tanaka, M;
Chen, Y;
(2015)
Are Targets for Renewable Portfolio Standards Too Low? The Impact of Market Structure on Energy Policy.
European Journal of Operational Research
, 250
(1)
pp. 328-341.
10.1016/j.ejor.2015.10.063.
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Abstract
In order to limit climate change from greenhouse gas emissions, governments have introduced renewable portfolio standards (RPS) to incentivise renewable energy production. While the response of industry to exogenous RPS targets has been addressed in the literature, setting RPS targets from a policymaker’s perspective has remained an open question. Using a bi-level model, we prove that the optimal RPS target for a perfectly competitive electricity industry is higher than that for a benchmark centrally planned one. Allowing for market power by the non-renewable energy sector within a deregulated industry lowers the RPS target vis-à-vis perfect competition. Moreover, to our surprise, social welfare under perfect competition with RPS is lower than that when the non-renewable energy sector exercises market power. In effect, by subsidising renewable energy and taxing the non-renewable sector, RPS represents an economic distortion that over-compensates damage from emissions. Thus, perfect competition with RPS results in “too much” renewable energy output, whereas the market power of the non-renewable energy sector mitigates this distortion, albeit at the cost of lower consumer surplus and higher emissions. Hence, ignoring the interaction between RPS requirements and the market structure could lead to sub-optimal RPS targets and substantial welfare losses.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Are Targets for Renewable Portfolio Standards Too Low? The Impact of Market Structure on Energy Policy |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ejor.2015.10.063 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2015.10.063 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2015 Elsevier B.V. This manuscript is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Non-derivative 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for personal and non-commercial use providing author and publisher attribution is clearly stated. Further details about CC BY licenses are available at http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0. Access may be initially restricted by the publisher. |
| Keywords: | OR in environment and climate change; Renewable portfolio standards; Bi-level modelling; Market power |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Statistical Science |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1472055 |
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