The following provides summaries of the research in progress by staff of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. The Institute’s unique multidisciplinary expertise allows it to examine the economics, the politics and the sociology of energy with a focus on oil and natural gas.
The specific subjects of research in progress, while set within these broad lines, necessarily reflects the particular research capacities, skills and interests of the research fellows.
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The UK CfD auction scheme to support renewable energy investment provides an interesting research subject. In the second auction round, in 2017, unexpected low price levels for the less mature technologies, especially offshore wind, have been observed. Costs of offshore wind have been on a descending cost trajectory but there might be also other reasons […]
The Helm Review of The Cost of Energy (which in practice focused on electricity) was published in October 2017. It contained a penetrating analysis of the political and technical challenges facing the UK electricity industry and a number of radical proposals for reform. In doing so it raised some fundamental issues about the industry’s future, […]
Auctions are increasingly being used for the procurement of new services and resources within electricity systems. For instance, auctions are now a standard means of promoting renewables; capacity auctions are being introduced in many countries; tenders for specialised services (like black start and frequency response) are commonly employed by grid operators; and the recent Helm […]
It is well accepted that markets are the most effective arena for organising productive activities. In the liberalisation of electricity sectors the role for government was envisioned as that of the “night watchman” that intervenes in the market only when the latter fails to allocate scare resources efficiently or when the operation of the market […]
This paper provides a critical review of the economic basis of the OECD power sector model, interrogating its relevance for desired sector outcomes in both developed and developing countries. The paper finds that the OECD model – as well as the related non-OECD standard model – has not been implemented in its ideal form in […]
The increasing dominance of natural gas in power generation in the UK since the 1990s has led to growing interdependence between its gas and power sectors. From the perspective of the power sector, the security of supply of the natural gas industry has implications on the security of supply of the power industry. Following the […]
Efficiency analysis lies at the heart of incentive-based regulation of electricity distribution networks. Most regulatory authorities have graduated from using exclusively ex ante (rate of return based) reviews of firms’ expenditures to relying also on ex post assessments of their costs – the latter are underpinned by benchmarking techniques (Poudineh and Jamasb, 2014). However, an […]
The infrastructural developments such as power grid, waste disposal facilities, wind farms, landfill, hydraulic fracturing, nuclear power plants etc. have an overall social benefit, distributed across the country, yet their deployment and operation incur a cost to the local communities living in the developments’ proximity. This problem which is traditionally termed NIMBY (Not-In-My-Back-Yard) is becoming […]
New issue of Oxford Energy Forum discusses the disruptive impact of interactions between vehicle automation, electr… https://t.co/tJdwhva2xq
April 18th
Oxford Energy Forum – Disruptive Change in the Transport Sector – Issue 112 https://t.co/0fUgz7PCJw
April 18th
Just publihsed by @BourseBazaar a synopsis of our latest @OxfordEnergy Insight on Iran. - https://t.co/9aZMptPmQ7
April 18th
