Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/227506 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
EWI Working Paper No. 20/02
Publisher: 
Institute of Energy Economics at the University of Cologne (EWI), Cologne
Abstract: 
In the European Union's (EU) gas transmission system, transporting gas requires the booking of transmission capacities. For this purpose, long-term and short-term capacity products are offered. Short-term capacities are priced by multiplying long-term capacity tariffs with factors called multipliers, making them comparably more expensive. As such, the level of multipliers directly affects how capacity is booked and may significantly impact infrastructure utilisation and welfare - an issue that has not received attention in the literature so far. Using a theoretical approach, we show that multipliers equal to 1 minimise costs and maximise welfare.In contrast, higher multipliers are associated with decreasing welfare. Yet, policymakers may favour higher multipliers, as we find that multipliers greater than 1 but sufficiently low can maximise consumer surplus by leading to reduced hub prices and lower regional price spreads on average. These findings are expected to hold for the large majority of the EU countries. Nevertheless, we also identify situations in which capacity demand can become inelastic depending on the proportion of multipliers with respect to the relative cost of transmission versus storage. In such cases, varying multipliers are found to have no effect on infrastructure utilisation, prices and welfare.
Subjects: 
gas transmission networks
entry-exit tariffs
multipliers
NC CAM
JEL: 
L51
L95
Q41
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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