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CenSES annual report 2011
14
A study of wind power in the Nordic market
Johannes Mauritzen is a fourth year PhD candidate
at the department of Finance and Management
Science at NHH. He will defend his dissertation in
May 2012. He is also an affiliated researcher and
current guest at the Research Institute for Industrial
Economics (IFN) in Stockholm. He holds a masters
degree in Economics from the University of Wash-
ington in Seattle.
He has researched and written about wind power in
the Nordic electricity market. His work is primarily
empirical, using data and statistical methodologies.
He found that in Denmark more wind power leads
to lower price variation. This is likely due to wind
power lowering peak prices more than base-load
prices. Mauritzen also investigates the interaction
of Danish wind power and Norwegian hydro pow-
er by way of spot market mechanisms. At times of
ample supply in Denmark - in particular when com-
bined heat and power plants are running - up to 40
percent of Danish wind power is exported and
stored in Norwegian hydro power magazines. Ca-
pacity constraints still limit this interaction however,
and wind power is shown to have a much higher ef-
fect on Danish prices than on Norwegian prices.
Finally, the project also analyse the decision to scrap
wind turbines in Denmark and find a strong role
of the opportunity cost caused by the interaction
of changes in government policy, technological
change, and differences in the wind resources. The
result is that turbines located in areas with better
wind resources are actually at a higher risk for being
scrapped.
Picture: Mauritzen presenting his research at the 2011 Cen-
SES annual conference. Photo: Claude R. Olsen
RA3 has three work pacages:
- WP1 Electricity market design and economic
incentives
- WP2 National policy: Regulation, incentives and
efficiency
- WP3 Regional economic implications of energy
policies
The main objective of this research area is to deve-
lop criteria to evaluate policies, including those for a
transitionary phase towards a lower-carbon
energy sector. Work performed at PhD level in-
cludes consequences of more wind energy, policies
to promote wind, carbon capture and storage, oth-
er aspects of renewable energy, as well as energy
efficiency in transport.
RA3 Economic Analysis