Integrated risk management for an electricity producer

Electricity suppliers face two sources of risk: uncertainty of spot prices and uncertainty of production costs. Uncertainty in selling the output is usually “solved” by signing forwards and the two sources of risk are dealt with separately. However, managing the integrated risk optimally is the direction we will suggest. We intend to analyse the problem a power producer is confronted to upon acting in a market where spot and forward agreements are available. Since forwards allow to sell production in advance at a given price but do not hedge against cost volatility, the total risk can be reduced by selling also in the spot market. The analysis is further detailed to encompass the spread option inherent in electricity production. We find a benchmark value for forwards to sign and the optimal spot/forward combinations. The analysis is carried out by accounting for market figures for input and output variables in the German market EEX.     

Day-ahead market bidding for a Nordic hydropower producer: taking the Elbas market into account

In many power markets around the world the energy generation decisions result from two-sided auctions in which producing and consuming agents submit their price-quantity bids. The determination of optimal bids in power markets is a complicated task that has to be undertaken every day. In the present work, we propose an optimization model for a price-taker hydropower producer in Nord Pool that takes into account the uncertainty in market prices and both production and physical trading aspects. The day-ahead bidding takes place a day before the actual operation and energy delivery. After this round of bidding, but before actual operation, some adjustments in the dispatched power (accepted bids) have to be done, due to uncertainty in prices, inflow and load. Such adjustments can be done in the Elbas market, which allows for trading physical electricity up to one hour before the operation hour. This paper uses stochastic programming to determine the optimal bidding strategy and the impact of the possibility to participate in the Elbas. ARMAX and GARCH techniques are used to generate realistic market price scenarios taking into account both day-ahead price and Elbas price uncertainty. The results show that considering Elbas when bidding in the day-ahead market does not significantly impact neither the profit nor the recommended bids of a typical hydro producer.     

A multi-stage financial hedging approach for the procurement of manufacturing materials

This paper addresses the problem of mitigating procurement risk that arises from volatile commodity prices by proposing a hedging strategy within a multi-stage time frame. The proposed multi-stage hedging strategy requires a commodity futures position to be correctly initialised and rebalanced with adequate volumes of short/long positions, so as to reduce the volatility in the total procurement cost that would otherwise be generated by varying commodity spot prices. The novelty in the approach is the introduction of the rebalancing of commodity futures position at defined intermediate stages. To obtain an efficient or near optimal multi-stage hedging strategy, a discrete-time stochastic control model (DSCM) is developed. Numerical experiments and Monte Carlo simulation are used to show that the proposed multi-stage hedging strategy compares favourably with the minimal-variance hedge and the one-stage hedge. A close-form optimal solution is also presented for the case when procurement volume and price are independent.     

Optimal electricity generation portfolios

It is common practice to base investment decisions on price projections which are gained from simulations using price processes. The choice of the underlying process is crucial for the simulation outcome. For power plants the core question is the existence of stable long-term cointegration relations. Therefore we investigate the impacts of different ways to model price movements in a portfolio selection model for the German electricity market. Three different approaches of modelling fuel prices are compared: initially, all prices are modelled as correlated random walks. Thereafter the coal price is modelled as random walk. The gas price follows the coal price through a mean-reversion process. Lastly, all prices are modelled as mean reversion processes with correlated residuals. The prices of electricity base and peak futures are simulated using historical correlations with gas and coal prices. Yearly base and peak prices are transformed into an estimated price duration curve followed by the steps power plant dispatch, operational margin and net present value calculation and finally the portfolio selection. The analysis shows that the chosen price process assumptions have significant impacts on the resulting portfolio structure and the weights of individual technologies.     

Capacity expansion and forward contracting in a duopolistic power sector

The surge in demand for electricity in recent years requires that power companies expand generation capacity sufficiently. Yet, at the same time, energy demand is subject to seasonal variations and peak-hour factors that cause it to be extremely volatile and unpredictable, thereby complicating the decision-making process. We investigate how power companies can optimise their capacity-expansion decisions while facing uncertainty and examine how expansion and forward contracts can be used as suitable tools for hedging against risk under market power. The problem is solved through a mixed-complementarity approach. Scenario-specific numerical results are analysed, and conclusions are drawn on how risk aversion, competition, and uncertainty interact in hedging, generation, and expansion decisions of a power company. We find that forward markets not only provide an effective means of risk hedging but also improve market efficiency with higher power output and lower prices. Power producers with higher levels of risk aversion tend to engage less in capacity expansion with the result that together with the option to sell in forward markets, very risk-averse producers generate at a level that hardly varies with scenarios.     

基于便利收益的商品期货套期保值策略研究

依据便利收益是商品现货与期货长期均衡关系的主要影响因素,研究商品便利收益对商品期货套期保值策略的影响。通过求解最大化期望效用的套期保值决策模型,得到了最优套期保值比率的封闭解,并且提出了以便利收益为修正因子的ECT-GARCH模型,同时选取2005年01月到2013年10月期间沪铝现货和期货数据进行实证分析。研究发现:便利收益的波动性与套期保值比率呈负相关,在套期保值比率估计精度和套期保值绩效方面,ECT-GARCH模型均优于B-GARCH模型和ECM-GARCH模型。     

Risk management in power markets: The Hedging value of production flexibility

Since the 1990s power markets are being restructured worldwide and nowadays electrical power is traded as a commodity. The liberalization and with it the uncertainty in gas, fuel and electrical power prices requires an effective management of production facilities and financial contracts. Thereby derivatives build essential instruments to exchange volume as well as price risks. The challenge for participants in the newly competitive market environment is how to design, price and hedge derivative contracts in particular combination with the flexibility embedded in dispatch strategies of production assets. Accordingly, an adequate basis for management and investment decisions is needed which responds to the highly complex market situation.     

考虑结算风险的套期保值研究

期货市场的风险转移功能主要通过套期保值策略来实现,期货市场套期保值的关键问题是套期保值比率的确定。现有套期保值研究侧重于规避价格风险,忽略了期货市场另一个重要的风险因素-结算风险。本文通过建立考虑结算风险的期货套期保值决策模型,有效地平衡了套期保值过程中的价格风险与结算风险。具体特色一是将套保者的结算风险厌恶态度直接反映到套期比的计算中,体现了结算风险对套期保值决策的影响;二是在一定条件下,本模型的套期比趋近于最小方差套期比;三是利用ARMA时间序列方法预测期货与现货的价格走势,有效地反映了期货价格一阶平稳和季节性变化规律,使估计的套期比更加精确可靠。     

Electricity price modeling and asset valuation: a multi-fuel structural approach

We introduce a new and highly tractable structural model for spot and derivative prices in electricity markets. Using a stochastic model of the bid stack, we translate the demand for power and the prices of generating fuels into electricity spot prices. The stack structure allows for a range of generator efficiencies per fuel type and for the possibility of future changes in the merit order of the fuels. The derived spot price process captures important stylized facts of historical electricity prices, including both spikes and the complex dependence upon its underlying supply and demand drivers. Furthermore, under mild and commonly used assumptions on the distributions of the input factors, we obtain closed-form formulae for electricity forward contracts and for spark and dark spread options. As merit order dynamics and fuel forward prices are embedded into the model, we capture a much richer and more realistic dependence structure than can be achieved by classical reduced-form models. We illustrate these advantages by comparing with Margrabe’s formula and a simple cointegration model, and highlight important implications for the valuation of power plants.     

Electricity pool prices: long-term uncertainty characterization for futures-market trading and risk management

Organized trading for electricity includes both the pool and the futures market. Pool prices are volatile while the prices of the futures-market products are comparatively more stable. Thus, futures-market products constitute hedging instruments to reduce the risk suffered by any market agent. Electricity market agents engage in both pool and futures market transactions seeking to maximize their respective profits/utilities for a given risk level on profit variability. To make informed decisions, the market agent must gather as much accurate information as possible on the pool prices covering the whole time horizon spanned by the futures-market product. This paper provides a novel technique to represent conveniently the uncertainty associated with pool prices during long- or medium-term horizons through a set of scenarios, that is, pool price realizations. The proposed technique uses the prices of the futures-market products as long-term explanatory variables and exploits the short-term structure of the pool prices.     

Static Hedging with Uncertain Quantity and Departure from the Cost-of-Carry Valuation

In this paper, we are concerned with the optimal hedge ratio under quantity risk as well as discrepancies between the futures market price and its theoretical valuation according to the cost- of-carry model. Assuming a geometric Brownian motion for forecasting process, we model mispricing as a specific noise corn poncnt in the dynamics of filturcs market prices, based on which the optimal hedging strategy is calculated. Finally, we illustrate optimal strategy and its properties by numerical examples.     

Optimal crop planting schedules and financial hedging strategies under ENSO-based climate forecasts

This paper investigates the impact of ENSO-based climate forecasts on optimal planting schedules and financial yield-hedging strategies in a framework focused on downside risk. In our context, insurance and futures contracts are available to hedge against yield and price risks, respectively. Furthermore, we adopt the Conditional-Value-at-Risk (CVaR) measure to assess downside risk, and Gaussian copula to simulate scenarios of correlated non-normal random yields and prices. The resulting optimization problem is a mixed 0?C1 integer programming formulation that is solved efficiently through a two-step procedure, first through an equivalent linear form by disjunctive constraints, followed by decomposition into sub-problems identified by hedging strategies. With data for a representative cotton producer in the Southeastern United States, we conduct a study that considers a wide variety of optimal planting schedules and hedging strategies under alternative risk profiles for each of the three ENSO phases (Niña, Niño, and Neutral.) We find that the Neutral phase generates the highest expected profit with the lowest downside risk. In contrast, the Niña phase is associated with the lowest expected profit and the highest downside risk. Additionally, yield-hedging insurance strategies are found to vary significantly, depending critically on the ENSO phase and on the price bias of futures contracts.     

Stochastic programming for optimizing bidding strategies of a Nordic hydropower producer

From the point of view of a price-taking hydropower producer participating in the day-ahead power market, market prices are highly uncertain. The present paper provides a model for determining optimal bidding strategies taking this uncertainty into account. In particular, market price scenarios are generated and a stochastic mixed-integer linear programming model that involves both hydropower production and physical trading aspects is developed. The idea is to explore the effects of including uncertainty explicitly into optimization by comparing the stochastic approach to a deterministic approach. The model is illustrated with data from a Norwegian hydropower producer and the Nordic power market at Nord Pool.     

A stochastic model for investments in different technologies for electricity production in the long period

We present a single stage stochastic mixed integer linear model for determining the optimal mix of different technologies for electricity generation, ranging from coal, nuclear and combined cycle gas turbine to hydroelectric, wind and photovoltaic, taking into account the existing plants, the cost of investment in new plants, maintenance costs, purchase and sale of ${CO}_2$ emission trading certificates and green certificates, in order to satisfy regulatory requirements. The power producer is assumed to be a price-taker. Stochasticity of future fuel prices, which affect the generation variable costs, is included in the model by means of a set of scenarios. The main contribution of the paper, beyond considering stochasticity in the future fuel prices, is the introduction of CVaR risk measure in the objective function in order to limit the possibility of low profits in bad scenarios with a fixed confidence level.     

基于Copula-ECM-GARCH模型的农产品期货套期保值绩效研究

Copula函数具有可以准确刻画变量间的相依结构、精准描述金融时间序列"尖峰厚尾"分布特点的良好统计性质.针对传统计量模型在计算套期保值比率时存在的局限性,利用Copula函数描述变量的尾部相关性,并结合ECM-GARCH模型,对大豆、小麦、玉米三种国内农产品期货进行套期保值研究,分别计算最优的套期保值比率及其绩效,并...     

A note on super-hedging for investor–producers

We study the situation of an agent who can trade on a financial market and can also transform some assets into others by means of a production system, in order to price and hedge derivatives on produced goods. This framework is motivated by the case of an electricity producer who wants to hedge a position on the electricity spot price and can trade commodities which are inputs for his system. This extends the essential results of Bouchard and Nguyen (Math Finance, 2011) to continuous time markets. We introduce the generic concept of conditional sure profit along the idea of the no sure profit condition of Rásonyi (Optimality and risk-modern trends in mathematical finance: the Kabanov Fetschrift, 2009). The condition allows one to provide a closedness property for the set of super-hedgeable claims in a very general financial setting. Using standard separation arguments, we then deduce a dual characterization of the latter and provide an application to power futures pricing.     

实物期权定价与风险对冲方法研究

实物期权定价面临的一个主要问题是其基本资产不可交易问题，在这种情况下，通常的解决办法是在市场中寻找一个与该基本资产最为相关的可交易资产，利用可交易资产的价格信息来对特定实物期权进行定价和风险对冲．利用随机动态规划法，本文得到基本资产不可交易时实物期权的最优风险对冲策略，在一定条件下还可以得到近似定价．     

天然气期货和现货价格间的相关性研究

基于天然气期货价格与现货价格序列间具有强非线性特征,本文将GARCH模型和Copula函数思想进行结合,同时考虑了天然气期货和现货价格间的时变相关结构,构建了时变Copula(GARCH-Normal、GARCH-GED和GARCH-t)模型,利用美国纽约商品交易所(NYMEX)Henry Hub交易中心天然气期货价格和现货价格数据进行实证研究。实证结果表明:GARCH-GED模型能够准确地拟合天然气期货与现货价格时间序列;时变SJC-Copula函数能够更好的描述天然气期货价格与现货价格间的相关性;天然气期货与现货价格间的相关性不是对称的,上尾的相关性小于下尾相的相关性。     

Spatial dependencies of wind power and interrelations with spot price dynamics

Wind power has seen strong growth over the last decade and increasingly affects electricity spot prices. In particular, prices are more volatile due to the stochastic nature of wind, such that more generation of wind energy yields lower prices. Therefore, it is important to assess the value of wind power at different locations not only for an investor but for the electricity system as a whole. In this paper, we develop a stochastic simulation model that captures the full spatial dependence structure of wind power by using copulas, incorporated into a supply and demand based model for the electricity spot price. This model is calibrated with German data. We find that the specific location of a turbine – i.e., its spatial dependence with respect to the aggregated wind power in the system – is of high relevance for its value. Many of the locations analyzed show an upper tail dependence that adversely impacts the market value. Therefore, a model that assumes a linear dependence structure would systematically overestimate the market value of wind power in many cases. This effect becomes more important for increasing levels of wind power penetration and may render the large-scale integration into markets more difficult.     

Joint Modelling of Gas and Electricity Spot Prices

Abstract

The recent liberalization of electricity and gas markets has resulted in the growth of energy exchanges and modelling problems. In this article, we jointly model gas and electricity spot prices using a mean-reverting model that fits the correlation structures for the two commodities. The dynamics are based on Ornstein processes with parameterized diffusion coefficients. Moreover, using the empirical distributions of the spot prices, we derive a class of such parameterized diffusions that captures the most salient statistical properties: stationarity, spikes and heavy-tailed distributions. The associated calibration procedure is based on standard and efficient statistical tools. We calibrate the model on French market for electricity and on UK market for gas, and then we simulate some trajectories that reproduce well the observed prices behaviour. Finally, we illustrate the importance of the correlation structure and of the presence of spikes by measuring the risk on a power plant portfolio.