Paper Reviews Wholesale Electricity Market Design for 21st Century Power Systems

October 2013 — Doug Arent is among the authors of a new, multi-institutional report for the 21st Century Power Partnership— Market Evolution: Wholesale Electricity Market Design for 21st Century Power Systems.

Variable renewable energy resources comprise an increasing share of electricity generation globally. At the same time, opportunities for addressing the variability of renewables are being strengthened through advances in smart grids, communications, and technologies. A key challenge of merging these opportunities is market design—creating incentives and compensating providers justly for attributes and performance that ensure a reliable and secure grid.

This report reviews the suite of wholesale power market designs in use and under consideration to ensure adequacy, security, and flexibility in a landscape of significant variable renewable energy.

Authors from China National Renewable Energy Center, Energinet.dk, Global Green Growth Institute, IBM, International Copper Association, NREL, Universidad de Castilla La Mancha, and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland also contributed to the report.