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Resource Adequacy and Energy-Only Market Design: Assessing The Impact of ERCOT’s Operating Reserve Demand Curve1

By Max Lipscomb

I examine the effect of an Operating Reserve Demand Curve (ORDC) which was recently implemented in Texas to assist power producers in recovering their fixed investment costs. I characterize and employ an economic plant dispatch model to examine the ORDC’s effects on representative natural gas plants in Texas, allowing me to determine whether or not the ORDC is likely to induce new capital deployment. I find that the ORDC’s positive effects are minimal and likely negated by the policy’s complexity, sending unclear signals to prospective investors. My results suggest that the policy itself is insufficient to incentivize the construction of new generation capacity in Texas’s electricity market.

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Advisor: James Roberts | JEL Codes: L9, L94, L97 | Tagged: Demand Curve, Electricity, Energy-only Operting Reserve, ERCOT Texas, Resource Adequacy, Utility Power

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