Dr. Kathleen Spees from The Brattle Group will be on campus Monday to deliver the third Economics Colloquium lecture this year, “Market Design from a Practitioner s Viewpoint:Wholesale Electric Market Design for Resource Adequacy.”
The lecture is at 4:30 in Steitz 102.
Dr. Spees has broad expertise in technical and policy aspects of electricity markets, including reliability and pricing. She earned an MS in electrical and computer science and a Ph.D. in Engineering & Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon. She completed a BS in mechanical engineering and physics from Iowa State University.
She will also give a talk to the ENST 151 class at 11:10, “Introduction to the Electric Power Industry.” Please see Professor Gerard if you are interested in attending.
The abstract for the Economic Colloquium is below the fold:
Market Design from a Practitioner’s Viewpoint:Wholesale Electric Market Design for Resource Adequacy
Kathleen Spees
The Brattle Group
ABSTRACT: Resource adequacy is the problem of ensuring that sufficient generating capacity will be built to provide a reliable source of power (relevant for long-run costs). However, most wholesale energy markets were introduced with the primary goal of efficiently dispatching an existing generation fleet (relevant only for short-run energy costs and in most cases providing insufficient returns to cover capital costs). The problem of developing market-based approaches to ensuring resource adequacy is a top current concern in most wholesale markets. The talk introduces the topic of resource adequacy and provides a brief background on the role and function of wholesale markets operated by Regional Transmission Operators (RTOs) and basic aspects of wholesale energy markets for short-run dispatch. Next it covers three fundamentally different approaches to assuring resource adequacy: (1) integrated planning through traditional non-market mechanisms, (2) energy-only markets, and (3) capacity markets. The discussion will draw upon examples of lessons learned over the first decade of experience after these markets have been introduced, and the presenter’s on-the-ground experience with market design.