February 14
@
4:00 PM
–
5:30 PM
Price Formation in Electricity Market Design: Optimizing for Consumer Welfare in the Long-Run
Abstract: As more extreme weather events bring the ramifications of climate change into sharper focus, we see electricity systems failing to cope. Current debates highlight the tension between central planning and market solutions in energy systems. In this talk, we will discuss one of the ways in which electricity markets do not match the microeconomic ideal: non-reducible non-convexities. Determining optimal prices in non-convex markets remains an unsolved challenge. Non-convex costs are critical in electricity markets, resulting from startup costs, no-load costs, and technical operating constraints in unit commitment, the electric generator scheduling problem. I demonstrate that the choice of pricing model can impact the long-run adapted resource mix and the total achievable consumer welfare and suggest paths forward as we incorporate more variable renewable energy and flexible demand into the power grid.
Ms. Conleigh Byers
Bio: Conleigh Byers is a doctoral candidate in Electrical Engineering at ETH Zurich. Her research uses tools from operations research, electrical engineering, and economics to design decarbonized energy systems, with a focus on power systems operations and planning. She holds an S.M. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and an S.M. in Technology & Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S.E. from Princeton University.