BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars: How nuclear power plants in Spain have reacted to the introduction of renewable energy

BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars
“How nuclear power plants in Spain have reacted to the introduction of renewable energy “

Dr. Margaret Armstrong
Cerna, Centre d’Economie Industrielle  MINES, ParisTech

Abstract

The introduction of renewable energy (notably wind and solar power) into the energy mix in Europe is causing massive problems for traditional power companies. According to a recent issue of The Economist [12 Oct 2013], the market capitalization of the top 20 European utilities has dropped by $1.3 trillion since 2008, with German companies being the most severely effected. E.ON’s income from conventional power generation (fossil fuels and nuclear) has fallen by more than 30% since 2010. In this paper we investigate what companies are doing to become more profitable. Our hypothesis is that traditional power producers have subtly changed their bidding strategies for selling electricity on the day-ahead and intraday markets. We test this hypothesis using the bids by nuclear power-plants to sell electricity on the Spanish day-ahead market over the period from 2002 to 2012. The Spanish market was chosen because the individual bids made by each producer are available to the public, making it possible to track the evolution in each power plant’s bidding strategy. Secondly, renewable energy accounts for 35% of the power generated in Spain, with windpower providing more than 18% [REE, 2012]. We chose to focus on nuclear plants because even though there are only 9 of them in Spain, they contribute about 20% of the electricity production.

Referenced paper

How nuclear power plants in Spain have reacted to the introduction of renewable energy