SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROPERTIES OF THE ENERGY MARKETS

Consumer properties of the thermal and electric energy which are the products at energy markets yield interconnections that have significant impact on the laws of energy consumption. When physical or price restrictions of the thermal energy supply are present at the power markets, the shortage of energy can be compensated by an increase in electricity consumption. At the same time, it appears that the interconnection of heat and electricity consumption largely determines the model of ower supply organization. Our paper analysed social and economic properties of the energy market. We show that in the case of separate production of heat and electric energy, these products yield the properties of substitutes for the consumers at the energy market. Our results show that heat and electric energy are interchangeable and the increase in the cost of one of them leads to its replacement by the other. At the same time, we find that for the countries with the well-developed combined production of heat and electric energy from the same energy source (the so-called cogeneration) which is typical for countries with a cold climate, the interrelationship between heat and electricity acquires a complementary nature, and the rise in prices for one commodity will not necessarily lead to a significant increase in demand for the other.