CAREER: Empirical Studies of Electricity Markets: The Impacts of Renewable Energy

Project Outcomes Statement

Professor Mar Reguant (PI) has led several research projects supported by the CAREER NSF Grant "Empirical Studies of Electricity Markets: The Impacts of Renewable Energy" (ID: 1455084).
The projects belong to three interrelated areas. The most crucial block concerns the direct study of the impact of renewables on electricity markets. Reguant uses mathematical programming tools and high-frequency data to assess the effects of wind power in Spain, bidding strategies by wind farms in the Iberian peninsula, the rise of solar energy in Chile, and the use of sequential markets in New Zealand.
Second, Reguant has also examined the potential of demand price response to help with renewable intermittency. Using smart meter data from Spain, where consumers face real-time prices, she finds that consumers do not provide high-frequency responses in the absence of enhancing technology, which deserves further exploration in the future.
Finally, she has also explored the broader implications of climate policy for manufacturing and exports, highlighting the difficulties in enacting carbon border adjustments given the measurement challenges.
For all this work, she has collaborated with researchers at several institutions (for example, at UChicago, UC Berkeley, U Carlos III, and UC Davis).
As part of the teaching goals of the project, Mar has developed novel interactive material to teach how to code mathematical programs for electricity markets, available at https://mreguant.github.io/em-course. This material is available to the public and is also a base for replicating many of her research findings, which are also available in open science repositories.
Several undergraduate and graduate students have benefited from the grant, allowing them to participate in research projects while getting data analysis and coding skills. Many of these students have continued their research paths at highly-ranked institutions (UChicago, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Princeton, UPenn, Columbia U).
More information on the projects and the publications are available at: https://mreguant.github.io.