TY - JOUR A1 - Schlecht, Ingmar A1 - Maurer, Christoph A1 - Hirth, Lion T1 - Financial contracts for differences: The problems with conventional CfDs in electricity markets and how forward contracts can help solve them JF - Energy Policy N2 - Contracts for differences are widely seen as a cornerstone of Europe's future electricity market design. This paper is about designing such contracts. We identify the dispatch and investment distortions that conventional CfDs cause, the patches used to overcome these shortcomings, and the problems these fixes introduce. We then propose an alternative contract we call “financial” CfD. This hybrid between conventional CfDs and forward contracts mitigates revenue risk to a substantial degree while providing undistorted incentives. Like conventional CfDs, it is long-term and tailored to technology-specific (wind, solar, nuclear) generation patterns but, like forwards, decouples payments from actual generation. The proposed contract mitigates volume risk and avoids margin calls by accepting physical assets as collateral. KW - Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law KW - General Energy Y1 - 2024 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-hsog/frontdoor/index/index/docId/5365 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2024.113981 VL - 186 ER -