Universität zu Köln

Paulus, Simon (2018). Essays in Energy Economics. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

The thesis at hand presents four ‘stand-alone’ essays in energy economics. The first essay is motivated by the basic idea that utility resulting from electricity consumption differs in every hour of the day. This hypothesis translates into a deeper analysis on demand elasticities of higher temporal resolution. The empirical results show that German hourly demand elasticity ranges from -0.02 to -0.13 with a distinct demand elasticity pattern. The second essay investigates the influences of regulation and gas prices on the emission levels of fossil power plants for all states in the U.S. It implicitly addresses the switch from coal-based generation to a less carbon-intense gas-fired generation over a thirteen years period. Besides best practice states, the results show that lower gas prices and stringent carefully designed CO2 regulations are suitable means to reduce CO2 emissions. Essays three and four investigate the impact on residential demand reduction through policy interventions specifically targeting a change in electricity use. As such, essay three investigates with the help of synthetic control groups the roll out of smart meters over a 13-year period and shows a significant negative impact of Advanced Metering Infrastructure on monthly residential electricity consumption that ranges from 6.1% to 6.4%. Essay four investigates conservation programs that have been established shortly after the Californian Energy Crisis in order to curb electricity consumption. The results show that short term programs have been effective leading to quarterly reductions between 6% to 12%. The essay furthermore provides evidence that some residential consumers must have been able to change consumption habits to uncover the majority of this reduction.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Paulus, Simon SimonPaulus@web.de UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-80468
Date:	18 January 2018
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Management, Economy and Social Sciences
Divisions:	Weitere Institute, Arbeits- und Forschungsgruppen > Staatswissenschaftliches Seminar
Subjects:	Psychology Political science Economics
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Hourly demand elasticities and patterns English Coal to gas switch English Impact of smart meter roll out English Effectiveness of conservation programs English
Date of oral exam:	12 December 2017
Referee:	Name Academic Title Vuong, Van Anh Prof. Ph.D. Bettzüge, Marc Oliver Prof. Dr.
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/8046