Grid investment and subsidy tradeoffs in renewable electricity auctions

Geographically neutral renewable energy auctions incentivize investors to locate their plants in optimal locations to minimize their bid prices, but this concentration might result in substantial grid investments. Ultimately, maximizing the social welfare for consumers requires minimizing the sum of...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Davi-Arderius, Daniel, Trujillo-Baute, Elisa, Río González, Pablo del
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2023
Country:España
Institution:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repository:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/343082
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/343082
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Renewable energy
Renewable energy auctions
Grid costs
Renewable energy sources
Description
Summary:Geographically neutral renewable energy auctions incentivize investors to locate their plants in optimal locations to minimize their bid prices, but this concentration might result in substantial grid investments. Ultimately, maximizing the social welfare for consumers requires minimizing the sum of renewable energy auction subsidies and grid investments. We quantify the trade-offs between grid investment costs and auction subsidies in geographically neutral and geographically diverse renewable energy auctions. We find that consumer costs are minimized in geographically diverse auctions, e.g., when renewables are not only located in the most optimal regions and, thus, when the auction subsidies are not minimized.