Markets, Stability, and Investment for Resilience, Efficiency, and Affordability
- Jun 12
- 1 min read
We have an affordability problem and no power to solve it. It seems. This thought paper started with questioning how we ensure affordability in a constrained environment. I went through ideas of how capacity markets could be used to form a capacity obligation for demand response (which already exists in some form) to keep prices down. And how seasonal the system has become. But it is difficult to address the issue of investment.
I ended up landing on a Stability Market that values operations and planning as a new resource. A market that compensates resources for reducing scarcity events, improving reliability, and lowering costs for consumers through double-causer pays system. I kept the seasonal planning period thoughts in this because I think it's important to call out that accurate planning requires recognizing the system has very different needs across each season.
The main takeaway is we have different resources and different behaviors in our system now requiring some need for control to support affordability, attract investment, and enable a more stable and environmentally sustainable system.
Take a look here:
