Determinants of household switching between natural gas suppliers: Evidence from Japan

We investigate the current situation of gas retail contracts and awareness of the switching possibilities among Japanese households. We observed that households may not have switched suppliers due to concerns regarding binding contracts required by new entrants to the gas market, as well as the quality of their safety inspections and stability of their management. For households to overcome these psychological barriers to switching, it is necessary to proactively disclose information that removes consumer concerns through habitually used media, such as newspapers. Switching experience in other markets can help remove psychological barriers in consumers.     

The Brazilian electricity market architecture: An analysis of instruments and misalignments

Brazil's current electricity market design heavily relies on auctions, long-term contracts, and central coordination mechanisms. Combining these instruments has proved to be effective in ensuring resource adequacy, a key policy objective. However, the implications of the dominance of the centrally coordinated auctions for long-term contracts are worth examining. This paper argues that the current market architecture may not represent the optimum long-term solution for a sustainable market as it ignores consumer preferences to drive investment decisions, transfers risks to consumers, has made the short-term market less relevant, and suffers from regulatory and design complexities.     

Electricity transmission: An overview of the current debate

Electricity transmission has emerged as critical for successfully liberalising power markets. This paper surveys the issues currently under discussion and provides a framework for the remaining papers in this issue. We conclude that signalling the efficient location of generation investment might require even a competitive LMP system to be complemented with deep connection charges. Although a Europe-wide LMP system is desirable, it appears politically problematic, so an integrated system of market coupling, possibly evolving by voluntary participation, should have high priority. Merchant investors may be able to increase interconnector capacity, although this is not unproblematic and raises new regulatory issues. A key issue that needs further research is how to better incentivise TSOs, especially with respect to cross-border issues.     

Optimal grid tariffs with heterogeneous prosumers

Energy consumers can invest in photovoltaic (PV) panels and become prosumers. The benefit of such an investment depends on the regulatory framework. We consider a population of heterogeneous consumers, with respect to both the cost of decentralized production and their degree of self-consumption.it is efficient to have investment by low-cost and high self-consumption profiles. We determine the optimal tariff in the presence of heterogeneous prosumers. Net metering fails to screen consumers on the self-consumption dimension. Net purchasing can lead to the efficient investment if the tariffs are non-Coasian that is fixed fees exceed the grid operator’s fixed costs.     

苏州城市旅游地生命周期的系统动态研究

旅游设施的投资商按历史的增长趋势来推测预期的游客增长趋势,往往会导致投资的过大和设施容量过剩。苏州作为旅游目的地,可以从各细分市场主要产品的发展特点看出不同细分市场的生命周期特点。在对苏州城市旅游地生命周期进行调控的时候,主要是以抓住调控远程观光市场的发展为重点。     

Consumerscapes and the resilience assessment of urban retail systems

Despite the plethora of studies on the behavior and values of consumers, research in the social sciences tends to sideline the role of the cultural dimension of consumption in the assessment of vitality and resilience of urban retail systems. However, given the tendency for retailers to make consumers a key element in their strategies, the cultural approach seems to be a valuable alternative to firm-centric analysis. This paper seeks to face this challenge mobilizing the lens of Consumer Culture Theory (CCT). The aim is to show why consumerscapes matter in the assessment of urban retail resilience. According to Arnould (2005), CCT allows us to capture the motivating social and cultural contexts of retail patronage and purchasing behaviors and the myriad of motivating factors behind the retail purchase decision. People have a variety of projects that they tend to realize through shopping practices and consumption, and retailers offer the range of resources they need to accomplish such projects. Bearing these ideas in mind, we suggest that in order to assess the resilience of urban retailing we need to know the extent to which the different shopping districts provide consumers with the range of resources they want so as to fulfill their projects, and how retailers and public authorities can, in the long term, sustain or improve the levels of consumer satisfaction. These ideas are discussed both in a theoretical and empirical way supported by the data collected from consumer surveys carried out in three neighborhood shopping districts in Greater Lisbon.     

Technology choices for new entrants in liberalized markets: The value of operating flexibility and contractual arrangements

New entrants in liberalized electricity markets which are not vertically integrated and do not operate a large and diversified portfolio of generation technologies are likely to favour technologies which offer the best prospects to manage fuel and electricity price risks through contractual arrangements and operating flexibility. Monte Carlo simulations of a discounted cash flow model of investment in combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT), coal and nuclear power plant are run to compare the impact of fuel and electricity price risks on these different technologies, as well as the value of operating flexibility and contractual hedges. In the absence of long-term fixed-price power purchase contracts, CCGT is the least risky option as its cash flow is “self-hedged” given the high correlation between electricity and gas prices observed in many markets. Moreover, the value associated with operating flexibility and arbitrage between gas and power market is greater for CCGT plant. This makes CCGT particularly attractive to new entrants.     

Locational signals to reduce network investments in smart distribution grids: What works and what not?

Locational pricing can reduce the investment needs arising in distribution networks from the transformation towards smart grids with high shares of renewable generation. We analyse different approaches. Locational signals in a general tariff plan for either energy or network pricing require substantial system reform which impedes feasibility. We propose smart contracts with locational elements as hybrid form. System reform is only modest since contractual solutions emerge in smart grids anyhow. The responsibility for tariff setting stays with the network operator. The regulator’s task is limited to incentivizing efficient network investment and allowing network operators maximum flexibility in contract design.     

Interaction between gas and power market designs

Both gas and electricity market designs depend on how the network use is regulated. Those regulations tend to promote contracts that simplify some of the network specificities in order to increase market thickness. However, those simplifications often come at the cost of distorting network use and investment signals. This problem and the consequences of different designs have been studied for each industry separately. This paper contributes by showing the cross-industry interactions. From this view, distortions depend not only on network simplifications in one market but on the particular combinations of market designs, i.e. choices about network simplification in both markets. Therefore, policy makers concerned with gas and electricity market designs should take into account the results of network rules interaction. We use simple auction designs to represent both markets, and we analyze how players are expected to respond to different network rules. Thus, looking from the perspective of gas-fired power plants, we study the incentives given by the designs for the use of each network. We also identify long-term investment effects of such design strategies.     

A plausible congestion management scheme for the internal electricity market of the European Union

This paper proposes a scheme for the management of network congestion in the Internal Electricity Market (IEM) of the European Union. This scheme tries to combine the rigor in the treatment of the energy and transmission capacity transactions with the flexibility and pragmatism that are necessary to make the scheme compatible with the current diversity of regulatory approaches and market structures in the Member States participating in the IEM. First, a reference scheme is presented with a complete formulation that jointly deals with the energy and capacity markets. Because of the implementation difficulties of this conceptually ideal approach, a more pragmatic scheme is proposed instead. The core of this scheme is an explicit auction mechanism that must be run prior to any short-term (daily, typically) energy markets. In this auction, where only transmission capacity is traded, both bilateral contracts and energy bids to Power Exchanges can participate in order to acquire the capacity that is necessary to carry out their transactions. Some technical issues related to the practical implementation of the proposed approach are also examined; these include market liquidity, the financial or physical nature of the long-term contracts, the potential problems of “slicing” transmission capacity and the allocation of congestion rents. Market power issues are ignored.     

Toward consumer-centric energy network regulation: Australia's experience

Understanding the objective of economic regulation as mimicking the process of competition, rather than the outcome of theoretical competitive markets, recognises the need for regulated energy transmission and distribution network service providers to respond to consumer preferences. The regulator, network service providers, and consumer advocates in Australia have conducted experiments on ways consumer preferences can shape regulatory proposals. These experiments demonstrate that agreements about regulatory proposals between the network service provider and a counterparty representing the interests of consumers are effective in ensuring that the proposal reflects consumer preferences. The paper demonstrates that in this process, consumers can also design output-oriented incentive schemes proposed by performance-based regulation.     

An integrated model for electricity market coupling simulations: Evidence from the European power market crossroad

Motivated by the project of European Power Exchanges to develop a single price-coupling solution to calculate electricity prices across Europe that respects the cross-border capacity constraints on a day-ahead basis, we empirically examine and quantify market inefficiencies in non-coupled day-ahead electricity markets. These result from inefficient cross-border capacity allocation and its underlying effect on the market clearing prices. Efficient cross-border capacity allocation and new market clearing prices are simulated using a social welfare maximisation algorithm for the capacity of relevant network elements, whereas the order book generation process is reproduced by the econometrically estimated supply price elasticity functions. The estimated vector autoregression model and the underlying impulse response functions examine price shock transmission under different market regimes. The market coupling process is simulated on the historical non-coupled day-ahead market realisations at the junction of three regional power markets: Central Western Europe, Northern Italian, and South Eastern European markets. Simulation results confirm steady, efficient cross-border capacity utilisation, reduced price variance, improved overall price convergence and amplified price shock transmission in coupled electricity markets. Furthermore, in the simulated period, we have estimated an increase in the overall suppliers' and consumers’ surplus of almost EUR 16 million. The proposed simulation framework is a clear choice for applied simulation in coupled day-ahead electricity markets, offering valuable visual insights into the cross-border capacity allocation and its implications on electricity prices.     

The Spatial Dynamic of Retail Planning and Retail Investment: Evidence from Australian Cities

The last two decades have experienced important and far-reaching changes to the retail landscape. In Australia, retail planning and management policies have sought to attract key players to particular sectors of the city thought to be most at risk of retail decline including CBD (central business district) locations. This study seeks to highlight the difficulty such strategies may face by quantifying the levels of retail investment into different locations. By mapping the direction retail investment has taken over time, the study explores the dichotomy which exists between the spatial dynamic of retail planning and retail investment in Australia. In conclusion, the analysis shows that, from an investment perspective, city centre locations are a much higher priced option and do not provide an excess return to justify the higher entry price. Should investment flows continue to be channelled away from these locations, the potential cycle of decline will be difficult to arrest and will pose major challenges for city planning authorities regarding the future vitality of city centres.     

我国房地产行业的外资参与及其影响

当前,外来投资者正在快速且全面进入我国房地产市场的各个环节,受到各方的广泛关注.本文总结了进入中国房地产行业的外资来源和投资形式,分析了我国房地产行业利用外资的现状和表现,认为日趋成熟的市场环境、丰富的投资机会和逐渐清晰可控的房地产投资风险是当前外资进入我国房地产市场的主要原因.同时提出,应该肯定外资的引入有利于推动我国房地产行业的竞争和成熟;也应对外资进行政策引导,保持我国房地产市场发展的独立和稳健.     

Pass-through in residential retail electricity competition: Evidence from Pennsylvania

Public data for Pennsylvania show that competitive retail electricity generation suppliers (EGS) have offered higher-priced products to residential consumers compared to prices offered by regulated default electric distribution companies (EDCs). It is unclear if the EGSs higher prices are due solely to providing differentiated value-added products with higher input costs or if these suppliers are extracting higher markups. This study applies regression analysis to residential retail price data from Pennsylvania to explore this uncertainty. Results suggest EGSs pass-through markups on voluntary green-power product environmental attributes of at least 1.3x or greater, depending on the product type and penetration. These results do not support the hypothesis that higher EGS prices are solely the result of higher input costs and support the notion that higher prices are due in part to markups.     

Interconnecting an isolated electricity system to the European market: The case of Malta

The long-term European Union (EU) energy policy increasingly requires member countries to reform existing power systems, including those of small island states. These are commonly isolated electricity systems that rely heavily on imported fossil fuels. Interconnections with mainland power systems are an alternative to offset the exposure to volatile fuel prices. This paper studies the 200-MW (MW) subsea transmission cable between the EU island member state of Malta and Sicily that was inaugurated on April 2015. Our main purpose is to examine whether and to what extent Malta's vulnerability to distinct oil price scenarios can be overcome with this new interconnector. We describe the process used to simulate the merit order for both Malta's isolated and interconnected electric generation setup. The algorithm used provides the average electricity spot price and economic scarcity rent of electricity imports and exports. The main finding is that the Malta-Sicily interconnector does not necessarily lower electricity prices for Malta's consumers. However, some scenarios, notably the incorporation of natural gas in Malta's future generation portfolio, achieve win–win situations for both consumer and supplier. The Malta case study shows that cable impacts depend on the installed generation capacity, oil price, and market design.     

浅议上市公司虚假财务信息对证券市场信用体系的影响——从绿大地披星戴帽浅谈我国证券市场信用环境

在证券流通市场中,投资者对上市公司的经营状况及投资回报难以准确判断,只能根据上市公司披露的信息来作出是否购买证券或继续持有的决定。在我国经济转型期间,屡次发生上市公司公布虚假财务信息、操纵利润、欺骗投资者的现象。我国证券市场存在着诚信缺失危机,严重影响了证券市场的健康发展。本文针对产生这一问题的原因进行分析,并且得到一些启示。     

Consumer preferences and electricity pricing reform in Western Australia

Australia's electricity prices are high, driven by rising peak demand that is forcing significant levels of infrastructure investment. Compounding these factors is the lack of transparent price signals for consumers, with uniform pricing structures providing no incentive to change consumption behaviours.This research surveyed residential electricity consumers in Western Australia about their perceptions of solar, consumption behaviour, and electricity pricing structures.The results suggest that customers in Western Australia may be willing to change behaviour, reduce electricity usage, and be rewarded for use of renewable technologies, highlighting an opportunity for policies such as retail tariff reform to be further explored.     

Retail structural dynamics and the forces behind big-box retailing

Recent change on the American retail landscape warrants a revisit to the catastrophe framework originated by Harris and Wilson (1978). A retail revolution, centered around the growth of big-box retailing, is recreating metropolitan retail structure. Alterations to both the sizes and spatial distributions of retailers in nearly every sector have resulted. This research presents a theoretical inquiry into the forces behind this change through an adoption and extension of the catastrophe theory framework. Results suggest that changes in retail structure, though they have altered consumer behavior, are more attributable to changes in the cost structures of firms than to changes in the preferences of consumers. Received: June 2000/Accepted: December 2000     

Payback of natural gas turbines: A retrospective analysis with implications for decarbonizing grids

The low capital cost, low lead times, and flexible operation of natural gas combustion turbines are qualitatively different from other power generation technologies and have the potential for faster investment payback. We explore this hypothesis with a retrospective analysis of natural gas combustion turbine economics in six locations, with revenue from energy, frequency regulation, reserve, and capacity markets. Using historical data, we find payback periods from 8.5 to 15 years. Gas turbines can be financially justified with a single profitable decade of service and are thus more economically compatible with a decarbonizing grid than other types of fossil fuel infrastructure.