TY - RPRT A1 - Radecke, Julia A1 - Hefele, Joseph A1 - Hirth, Lion T1 - Markets for Local Flexibility in Distribution Networks T2 - EconStor Preprints 204559 Y1 - 2019 UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10419/204559 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Dertinger, Andrea A1 - Hirth, Lion T1 - The Impact of Power Sector Reforms in Developing Economies T2 - EconStor N2 - Since the 1990s, many developing countries have restructured their electric power industry. Policies such as breaking up, commercializing and privatizing utilities, allowing for independent power producers, installing independent regulators, and introducing competitive wholesale markets were meant to improve the industry’s efficiency and service quality. We exploit more than 30 years of data from over 100 countries to investigate the impact of power sector reforms on efficiency (represented by network losses) and access to electricity (represented by connection rates and residential power consumption). Crucially, reforms are likely to be endogenous with respect to sector performance: a crisis in electricity supply might well trigger reform efforts. We deal with endogeneity using reform activity in neighboring countries as an instrument. Our results suggest that reforms strongly and positively impact electricity access. According to our preferred specification, a full reform program would increase connection rates by 20 percentage points and per capita consumption by 62 percent: these are large effects that are stable across a range of robustness checks. Moreover, the effect of improving access is largest in South Asian countries. In contrast to previous studies, we do not find robust evidence to support the theory that reforms reduce network losses. Y1 - 2019 UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10419/201842 PB - ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ET - Preprints 201842 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Hirth, Lion A1 - Schlecht, Ingmar T1 - Redispatch Markets in Zonal Electricity Markets: Inc-Dec Gaming as a Consequence of Inconsistent Power Market Design (not Market Power) T2 - EconStor Y1 - 2019 UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10419/194292 PB - ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hirth, Lion T1 - Open data for electricity modeling: Legal aspects JF - Energy Strategy Reviews N2 - Power system modeling is data intensive. In Europe, electricity system data is often available from sources such as statistical offices or system operators. However, it is often unclear if these data can be legally used for modeling, and in particular if such use infringes intellectual property rights. This article reviews the legal status of power system data, both as a guide for data users and for data publishers. It is based on interpretation of the law, a review of the secondary literature, an analysis of the licenses used by major data distributors, expert interviews, and a series of workshops. A core finding is that in many cases the legality of current practices is doubtful: in fact, it seems likely that modelers infringe intellectual property rights quite regularly. This is true for industry analysis but also academic researchers. A straightforward solution is open data – the idea that data can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose. To be open, it is not sufficient for data to be accessible free of cost, it must also come with an open data license, the most common types of which are also reviewed in this paper. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2019.100433 N1 - Open Access publication ET - 27 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jerrentrup, Lars A1 - Lotz, Bastian A1 - Tiedemann, Silvana A1 - Hirth, Lion T1 - Technology-Neutral Auctions for Renewable Energy: EU Law vs. Member State Reality JF - Journal for European Environmental & Planning Law N2 - European Union competition law, intended to thwart subsidies paid out by national governments, plays an important role in shaping EU Member States’ support schemes for renewable energy. The Environmental and Energy State Aid Guidelines 2014–2020, which formalize the European Commission’s take on subsidies in the electricity sector, prescribe technology-neutral auctions as the standard mechanism to determine support levels. In this study, we have assessed the formal decisions of the Commission with respect to technology-neutrality between July 2014 and May 2018. It turns out that 16 out of 18 schemes are not technology-neutral and figure high degrees of technology-differentiation. We have also studied the exemption clauses invoked to justify technology-discrimination, finding that the most ambiguous clause is used most frequently, and that the application and level of scrutiny varies strongly from case to case. The State Aid Guidelines are meant to increase transparency and legal certainty. We find that with respect to technology-neutral auctions for renewable energy, the Guidelines fail to deliver on their purpose. Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-30906 SN - 1876-0104 N1 - This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Journal for European Environmental & Planning Law. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1163/18760104-01604005 VL - 16 SP - 386 EP - 406 ET - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ruhnau, Oliver A1 - Hirth, Lion A1 - Praktiknjo, Aaron T1 - Time series of heat demand and heat pump efficiency for energy system modeling JF - Nature Scientific Data N2 - With electric heat pumps substituting for fossil-fueled alternatives, the temporal variability of their power consumption becomes increasingly important to the electricity system. To easily include this variability in energy system analyses, this paper introduces the “When2Heat” dataset comprising synthetic national time series of both the heat demand and the coefficient of performance (COP) of heat pumps. It covers 16 European countries, includes the years 2008 to 2018, and features an hourly resolution. Demand profiles for space and water heating are computed by combining gas standard load profiles with spatial temperature and wind speed reanalysis data as well as population geodata. COP time series for different heat sources – air, ground, and groundwater – and different heat sinks – floor heating, radiators, and water heating – are calculated based on COP and heating curves using reanalysis temperature data. The dataset, as well as the scripts and input parameters, are publicly available under an open source license on the Open Power System Data platform. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0199-y N1 - Open Access publication VL - 6 IS - 189 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Koch, Christopher A1 - Hirth, Lion T1 - Short-term electricity trading for system balancing: An empirical analysis of the role of intraday trading in balancing Germany's electricity system JF - Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews N2 - Previous studies have noted that, surprisingly, Germany’s dramatic expansion of wind and solar energy coincided with a reduction of short-term balancing reserves. This paper provides further and updated evidence, supporting this “German Balancing Paradox”: since 2011 wind and solar energy nearly doubled while reserve requirements and reserve activation declined by around 50%. We quantitatively explore one reason for reduced balancing needs: increased and improved short-term wholesale electricity trading. Electricity trading is now commonly done around the clock and based on quarter hours, rather than hours. The shift to quarter-hourly products alone explains a decrease in balancing energy by 17%. We also find strong evidence for market parties to respond efficiently to imbalance charges, suggesting that market-based approaches to balancing work. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2019.109275 N1 - Also available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3284262 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3284262 VL - 113 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wiese, Frauke A1 - Schlecht, Ingmar A1 - Bunke, Wolf-Dieter A1 - Gerbaulet, Clemens A1 - Hirth, Lion A1 - Jahn, Martin A1 - Kunz, Friedrich A1 - Lorenz, Casimir A1 - Mühlenpfordt, Jonathan A1 - Reimann, Juliane A1 - Schill, Wolf-Peter T1 - Open Power System Data - Frictionless data for electricity system modelling JF - Applied Energy N2 - The quality of electricity system modelling heavily depends on the input data used. Although a lot of data is publicly available, it is often dispersed, tedious to process and partly contains errors. We argue that a central provision of input data for modelling has the character of a public good: it reduces overall societal costs for quantitative energy research as redundant work is avoided, and it improves transparency and reproducibility in electricity system modelling. This paper describes the Open Power System Data platform that aims at realising the efficiency and quality gains of centralised data provision by collecting, checking, processing, aggregating, documenting and publishing data required by most modellers. We conclude that the platform can provide substantial benefits to energy system analysis by raising efficiency of data pre-processing, providing a method for making data pre-processing for energy system modelling traceable, flexible and reproducible and improving the quality of original data published by data providers. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.11.097 VL - 236 SP - 409 ER -