www.qualenergia.it // february 2014
In the Italian electricity system outlined there is the hypothesis that the closure of part of the thermoelectric capacity would compromise system security. It would be better to leave the reserve margin to drop and see if commodity prices return to levels compatible with ensuring the system. An article by Giuseppe Artizzu. Until three years ago, the time profile of the equilibrium price in the market followed the electric load curve faithfully. By 2012 the photovoltaics had brought a gradual but systematic reduction of price in the central hours of the day, preceded and followed by two short spikes in the early morning and late afternoon, also helped by migrating to those times of the programmable power production. In substance the hourly price curve doesn’t follow the load but the residual load, i.e. the portion not covered by intermittent sources at zero marginal cost.