Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/103275 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
EWL Working Paper No. 6 [04/09]
Publisher: 
University of Duisburg-Essen, Chair for Management Science and Energy Economics, Essen
Abstract: 
Optimal capacity allocation for investments in electricity generation assets can be deterministically derived by comparing technology specific long-term and short-term marginal costs. In an uncertain market environment, Mean-Variance Portfolio (MVP) theory provides a consistent framework to valuate financial risks in power generation portfolios that allows to derive the efficient fuel mix of a system portfolio with different generation technologies from a welfare maximization perspective. Because existing literature on MVP applications in electricity generation markets uses predominantly numerical methods to characterize portfolio risks, this article presents a novel analytical approach combining conceptual elements of peak-load pricing and MVP theory to derive optimal portfolios consisting of an arbitrary number of plant technologies given uncertain fuel prices. For this purpose, we provide a static optimization model which allows to fully capture fuel price risks in a mean variance portfolio framework. The analytically derived optimality conditions contribute to a much better understanding of the optimal investment policy and its risk characteristics compared to existing numerical methods. Furthermore, we demonstrate an application of the proposed framework and results to the German electricity market which has not yet been treated in MVP literature on electricity markets.
Subjects: 
power plant investments
peak load pricing
mean-variance portfolio theory
fuel mix diversification
JEL: 
G11
L94
Q43
C44
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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