Browsing by Author "Sauma, E."

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    Analysis of generation investments under price controls in cross-border trade of electricity
    (2023) Muñoz Abogabir, Juan Carlos; Sauma, E.; Muñoz, F.D.; Moreno, R.
    Price controls are commonly employed in Latin America and other regions to prevent price increases in exporting regions during cross-border trade of electricity. This paper introduces a methodology to evaluate the economic impact of price controls on generation investments, dispatch decisions, and carbon emissions in the context of cross-border electricity trade. We propose a non-linear adjusting function to represent a price-control rule, which can be incorporated into equilibrium models for generation firms and price-sensitive consumers. By employing fixed-point iterations between the adjusting function and an optimization problem that determines equilibrium investments and dispatch decisions for generation firms in a competitive environment, we obtain an equilibrium solution. We apply the proposed methodology to analyze the current price controls governing cross-border electricity trade between Chile and Argentina, with a focus on the exporting country. Our findings reveal that existing price controls can impede incentives for renewable energy investments, particularly in wind and solar, while stimulating investments in fossil fuel-based generation capacity. Moreover, these controls lead to increased emissions compared to a scenario without price controls. Additionally, we observe that the inefficiency resulting from price controls is proportionate to the volume of exports relative to local demand and the price elasticity of demand in the importing region
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    Impact of high wind power penetration on transmission network expansion planning
    (INST ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY-IET, 2012) Munoz, C.; Sauma, E.; Contreras, J.; Aguado, J.; de La Torre, S.
    Power generation from renewable sources has greatly increased in the last decade. Accordingly, the planning of power system expansions must incorporate the special features of these types of energy sources. Long-term power transmission expansion planning usually does not take these differences among energy sources into account because of the long period considered. However, modelling the special features of renewable sources may influence the optimal transmission plan. In this study, the authors propose a methodology for long-term power transmission expansion planning that incorporates the costs associated with the operation of wind power plants. In particular, the authors model the transmission expansion planning problem as a mixed-integer linear program in which the variability of the wind resource, the impact of wind power operation in the system security and the impact of wind power operation in the reserve market are incorporated. The authors illustrate the methodology using a 34-node version of the main Chilean network.