BEHAVIORAL STUDIES IN ENERGY ECONOMICS: A REVIEW AND RESEARCH FRAMEWORK

摘要

Energy markets are becoming increasingly decentral.Renewable generation is more distributed and regulators are considering decentral actions such as demand response to ensure grid stability.Furthermore,since the liberalization an increasing number of agents is active on energy markets.More utility companies hold generation capacity and more retailers cover consumer demand.Additionally,the wide landscape of different markets leads to a variety of decisions taken every day,such as market participation or dispatch decisions.Also,energy consumers are becoming more active market participants.The demand side is increasingly important for the energy market.A trend which will continue with more digitalization and the transition to a smart grid.This makes the modelling of individual agent behavior more important.It is no longer sufficient to model agents using the assumption of economically rational behavior.Especially in auction design it becomes more important to understand specific agent preferences to be able to realistically design simulation models.In this paper we provide a research framework that facilitates behavioral studies in the energy context.We base the framework on three columns: Mechanism design,lab and field experiments and data analytics.We conduct a thorough literature review of existing behavioral studies in electricity market research and classify them along the developed research framework.Furthermore,we propose the exemplary application of the developed framework to the areas of local market design,tariff design and congestion management.Therefore,the contribution of this paper is threefold: 1.Development of a framework for behavioral studies in the energy domain 2.Literature review of the defined dimensions of the research framework 3.Exemplary application of the research framework to three research areas The results support researchers in defining their research scope and in incorporating behavioral research results into their research models and simulations.This allows for a variety of research on strategy,preferences and behavior.