The Trouble With Electricity Markets
Understanding California's Restructuring Disaster
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4029458 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Severin Borenstein (0000-0001-5635-0841, Director, University of California Energy Institute, and E. T. Grether Professor of Business Administration and Public Policy, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, California., corresponding author) |
| Year | 2002 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 191-211 |
| Publication date | 2002-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Economic Perspectives (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0895-3309 • E-ISSN: 1944-7965 |
| Publisher | American Economic Association (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1257/0895330027175 |
| OpenAlex | W2075132325 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 23 |
| References cited | 5 |
In June 2000, after two years of fairly smooth operation, California's deregulated wholesale electricity market began producing extremely high prices and threats of supply shortages. The upheaval demonstrated dramatically why most current electricity markets are extremely volatile: demand is difficult to forecast and exhibits virtually no price responsiveness, while supply faces strict production constraints and prohibitive storage costs. This structure leads to periods of surplus and of shortage, the latter exacerbated by sellers' ability to exercise market power. Electricity markets can function much more smoothly, however, if they are designed to support price-responsive demand and long-term wholesale contracts for electricity
Business · Commerce · Economic shortage · Economics · Electricity · Electricity market · Electricity price · Electricity retailing · Industrial organization · Mains electricity · Market economy · Microeconomics · Natural resource economics · Restructuring · Supply · Supply and demand · Electric Power System Optimization · Engineering · ICT Impact and Policies · Finance
Electricity Cost and Firm Performance
Knowledge is (Less) Power
Short Circuiting Policy
A Political Ecology of Healing
Auctions with Privately Known Capacities
An open-access market for global communications
Lights out alert
Through the energy efficiency looking glass
Electric Industry Restructuring
Limits to Competition and Regulation in Privatized Electricity Markets
Competition in electricity markets
Is more competition better? Retail electricity prices and switching rates in the European Union
Integration of Demand Response in Electricity Market Capacity Mechanisms
Approaches to induce behavioral changes with respect to electricity consumption
Regulatory Reform
Is Real-Time Pricing Green? The Environmental Impacts of Electricity Demand Variance
Electricity Unit Value Prices and Purchase Quantities
State Budget Deficit Dynamics and the California Debacle
Creating a Smarter U.S. Electricity Grid
Commodity Spot Prices
How politics, economics, and institutions shaped electric utility regulation in the United States
Power to the People
Economics versus Politics
| Unique citing works | 23 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2003 - 2025 (23) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 22 |