文章基本信息

标题：The use of wholesale market purchases by U.S. electric utilities
本地全文：下载
作者：Juan Pablo Carvallo ; Sean P. Murphy ; Alan Sanstad 等
期刊名称：Energy Strategy Reviews
印刷版ISSN：2211-467X
出版年度：2020
卷号：30
页码：1-12
DOI：10.1016/j.esr.2020.100508
出版社：Elsevier
摘要：Load Serving Entities (LSEs) can procure electricity from their owned generation or purchase it on bilateral or organized markets. Electric utility procurement decisions have important implications for rates, resource adequacy, environmental impacts, and LSE cost recovery. However, there is little or no research on trends of utility procurement practices—or the role of wholesale market transactions. This paper leverages information from the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration, Berkeley Lab's Resource Planning Portal, and structured interviews with regulatory and utility staff. We find that use of market transactions to meet electric energy needs has been increasing across U.S. LSEs. The reasons for this trend include a general stagnation in building owned resources, a preference towards contracting renewable energy resources to meet RPS targets, and the lower relative cost of wholesale market electricity. Results suggest resource adequacy obligations may drive preferences for asset ownership more than a profit incentive. We also recommend improving the planning to procurement connection by incorporating operational constraints of market transactions within planning processes. These results provide insights on key issues in electric utility procurement that could improve overall market efficiency and identify practices that stakeholders should consider incorporating into their long-term capacity planning processes.
关键词：Electricity markets ; Buy versus build ; Market transactions ; Historical analysis