An analytical framework for short-term resource adequacy in competitive electricity markets

Short-term resource adequacy, a key component of system reliability, is the ability of a system with a fixed resource mix to meet the load at all times. In the competitive environment, the interaction of markets and reliability has raised this issue to new prominence. Market design influences significantly the behavior of market players, which, in turn, impacts the capacity adequacy of the system. The extent of such impacts is well illustrated by the California market experience during the 2000-2001 crisis. Current resource adequacy tools fail to explicitly consider the interactions between market design, the behavior of market players and system reliablity. We construct an analytical framework for short-term resource adequacy that explicitly considers the interactions between markets and reliability. The framework models both the physical world by representing the resources and the load demand, and the market world, by including the market design, the market players' behavior and their interactions with the physical world. We use the framework to assess the impacts of market player behavior on various test systems. Representative results are provided.