A pricing mechanism to jointly mitigate market power and environmental externalities in electricity markets

The electricity industry has been one of the first to face technological changes motivated by sustainability concerns. Whilst efficiency aspects of market design have tended to focus upon market power concerns, the new policy challenges emphasise sustainability. We argue that market designs need to develop remedies for market conduct integrated with regard to environmental externalities. Accordingly, we develop an incentive-based market clearing mechanism using a power network representation with a distinctive feature of incomplete information regarding generation costs. The shortcomings of price caps to mitigate market power, in this context, are overcome with the proposed mechanism.

Automated summary

The electricity industry is undergoing technological changes driven by sustainability concerns. The focus of market design has shifted towards addressing environmental externalities. To address this challenge, we propose an incentive-based market clearing mechanism using a power network representation with incomplete information on generation costs, overcoming the limitations of price caps in mitigating market power.