Markov switching of the electricity supply curve and power prices dynamics

Regime-switching models seem to well capture the main features of power prices behavior in deregulated markets. In a recent paper, we have proposed an equilibrium methodology to derive electricity prices dynamics from the interplay between supply and demand in a stochastic environment. In particular, assuming that the supply function is described by a power law where the exponent is a two-state strictly positive Markov process, we derived a regime switching dynamics of power prices in which regime switches are induced by transitions between Markov states.In this paper, we provide a dynamical model to describe the random behavior of power prices where the only non-Brownian component of the motion is endogenously introduced by Markov transitions in the exponent of the electricity supply curve. In this context, the stochastic process driving the switching mechanism becomes observable, and we will show that the non-Brownian component of the dynamics induced by transitions from Markov states is responsible for jumps and spikes of very high magnitude. The empirical analysis performed on three Australian markets confirms that the proposed approach seems quite flexible and capable of incorporating the main features of power prices time-series, thus reproducing the first four moments of log-returns empirical distributions in a satisfactory way.     

Modelling spikes in electricity markets using excitable dynamics

We present a general methodology to model spikes in deregulated electricity markets using excitable dynamics in a multi-regime switching approach. In particular, we propose a two-regime switching model and a three-regime switching model in which the spikes phenomenon is described by a FitzHugh-Nagumo excitable dynamics. Both models seems to be interesting candidates for describing the main characteristics of electricity price dynamics as the occurrence of stable periods in which prices fluctuate around some long-run mean, and turbulent periods in which prices experience jumps and spikes of very large magnitude. In agreement with market data, both models can produce probability distributions of price returns with positive skewness and very high values of kurtosis.