Christian Winzer

• PhD
• Lecturer at ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences

One of the root causes behind many of the distortions in today’s electricity markets is that short term security of supply is a good without a market as curtailment bids are typically not priced based on consumer preferences. Consumer choice of reliability levels is thus replaced with administrative reliability targets. As there is no market to det...

Dynamische Stromtarife werden als wichtiges Element in der Transformation der Energiewirtschaft gesehen. Bislang sind sie in Deutschland und der Schweiz noch kaum verbreitet. In diesem Beitrag werden ihre systemischen Eigenschaften und Ansätze zur Reduktion der preislichen Risiken der Endkunden beschrieben, die zu einer besseren Akzeptanz der dynam...

Angesichts der zukünftig steigenden Verteilnetzkosten und umfassenderen Flexibilisierungsmöglichkeiten stellt sich die Frage, inwieweit neben einer Flexibilitätsregulierung auch eine stärker zeitvariable und regional differenzierte Netztarifierung erforderlich ist. Hierzu werden in diesem Artikel aktuelle Studienergebnisse und Praxisbeispiele aus d...

Based on a discrete choice experiment with 582 households in Switzerland, we find, that about 30% of the customers focus on price risks (cost focus) when they choose an electricity tariff, while 70% of the customers are more worried about volume risks (comfort focus). Customers with a cost focus, prefer contracts with low price risks and automatic...

Demand-side management (DSM) is increasingly needed for answering electricity flexibility needs in the upcoming transformation of energy systems. Use of automation leads to better efficiency, but its acceptance is problematic since it is linked with several issues, such as privacy or loss of control. Different approaches investigate what should be...

While automation helps to increase load-shifting, the combination of automation with time-of-use (TOU) or critical-peak prices (CPP) may lead to rebound peaks at the beginning of low-tariff periods which may exceed the original peak. Using a discrete choice experiment with a representative sample of 696 Swiss consumers, we find that a tariff menu i...

Accurate load forecasting is essential for power-sector planning and management. This applies during normal situations as well as phase changes such as the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic due to variations in electricity consumption that made it difficult for system operators to forecast load accurately. So far, few studies have used traffic data t...

Demand side management (DSM) requires automation in order to suitably address the fluctuating conditions within energy grids. One of the major challenges for introducing and maintaining automation solutions for DSM is to acquire a social license, that is, to ensure the acceptance and approval of the affected stakeholder communities. In this paper,...

The literature on priority service has developed a blue-print for a market design, which addresses many of the success factors from decades of demand response programs. We show how priority service could improve alternative approaches to supply security and discuss how it may be implemented in the context of European Network Codes and the Clean Ene...

Die vorliegende Studie beurteilt die bestehende Energie- und Klimapolitik aus ökonomischer Sicht und erörtert ergänzenden Vorschläge für ein weiteres Massnahmenpaket. Im Einzelnen werden Massnahmen zum Ausbau der Stromproduktion aus erneuerbaren Energien, zur Gewährleistung der Versorgungssicherheit und zur Minderung der CO2-Emissionen analysiert.

Estimating the worth of continuity of electricity supply is of interest to industry, governments, regulators and the research community. There are numerous methods to calculate the Customer Interruption Costs (CICs). Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. We approach the problem from the Distribution System Operator (DSO) point of view a...

Estimation of the worth of continuity of electricity supply is of interest of industry, authorities and research society. There are numerous methods to calculate the Customer Interruption Costs (CICs). Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. This paper approaches the problem from Distribution System Operators’ (DSOs) point of view and ado...

One of the root causes behind many of the distortions in today’s electricity markets is that short term security of supply is a good without a market as curtailments are typically not priced based on consumer preferences. Consumer choice of reliability levels is thus replaced with administrative reliability targets and adequate investment needs to...

Vorstellung des Working-Papers "Power to the people – Creating markets for supply security based on consumer choice" im Rahmen des Strommarkttreffens am BMWi.

We present a survey of ways to measure energy security with reference to the UK . We start by explaining the purpose of indicators and some of their limitations and pitfalls, including those specific to the energy security measures discussed elsewhere in this book. We go on to draw attention to those relatively few measures which are used in practi...

In this paper we introduce a probabilistic time-series model that quantifies the impact of inter-dependent natural, technical and human risk sources on energy supply continuity. Based on a stylized case study of Italian gas and electricity markets we conclude that typical simplifications in time-series models and alternative approaches lead to a bi...

In the EU, several governments have introduced or are contemplating a capacity mechanism to ensure adequate investment in generation capacity. Previous research has analyzed the impacts of capacity mechanisms on installed capacity and cost to consumers in case of efficient regulation. By contrast we find that the choice between capacity mechanisms...

Energy security(1) is one of the main targets of energy policy. However, the term has not been clearly defined, which makes it hard to measure and difficult to balance against other policy objectives. We review the multitude of definitions of energy security. They can be characterized according to the sources of risk, the scope of the impacts, and...