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on Information and Communication Technologies |
| By: | Hyungna Oh (Department of Economics, West Virginia University); Asawari Moholkar (West Virginia University); Stratford Douglas (Department of Economics, West Virginia University); Powsiri Klinkhachorn (West Virginia University) |
| Abstract: | Excessive peak load increases the transmission system’s vulnerability to reliability problems. One tactic for reducing peak loads is to increase the responsiveness of demand to changes in wholesale electricity prices. This research describes the Computer-Aided Home Energy Management (CAHEM) system, which integrates consumer preferences and real-time information about electricity prices, loads, and weather into a load-shifting algorithm that seeks an optimal tradeoff between residential electricity consumer satisfaction and peak load reduction using a rule-based fuzzy controller. We evaluate the effects of the CAHEM system on the larger power system, using PJM data from 1999, and then use the CAHEM system as the basis of a model of consumer response that we embed in a larger multi-agent simulation (MAS) of the electricity market. We focus on characteristics germane to the reliability of the transmission system, particularly price spike behavior and capacity availability and utilization. Because our findings suggest that strategic suppliers reduce their offers in response to increased consumer price-responsiveness, we cast some doubt upon assumptions that more consumer flexibility will necessarily increase the reliability of the system as a whole. |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wvu:wpaper:06-01&r=ict |
| By: | Leonel Cerno (Universidad Europea de Madrid); Teodosio Pérez Amaral (Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Facultad de CC. Económicas y Empresariales. Dpto. de Economía Cuantitativa) |
| Abstract: | The goal of this paper is to analyze a new phenomenon: Internet demand in Spain. To do so, we use a new high quality data set and advanced econometric techniques for estimating Internet demand functions, incorporating the socio-demographic characteristics of the individuals. We begin with a graphic analysis of the data,searching for relationships between the different characteristics. Then we specify and estimate two econometric models, one for broadband access at home and another for Internet use intensity. We also find that 25.2% of the Spanish population accesses the Internet at home, but less than half uses broadband connection. This demand is positively related to income and other technological attributes and negatively related to socio-demographic attributes such as habitat and age. Our results are compatible with previous literature for other countries, although there is a important difference: broadband Internet connections are still considered as a luxury good in Spain. |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucm:doicae:0506&r=ict |
| By: | Cesar Martinelli (Centro de Investigacion Economica (CIE), Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM)) |
| Abstract: | We model a two-alternative election in which voters may acquire information about which is the best alternative for all voters. Voters differ in their cost of acquiring information. We show that as the number of voters increases, the fraction of voters who acquire information declines to zero. However, if the support of the cost distribution is not bounded away from zero, there is an equilibrium with some information acquisition for arbitrarily large electorates. This equilibrium dominates in terms of welfare any equilibrium without information acquisition--even though generally there is too little information acquisition with respect to an optimal strategy profile. |
| JEL: | D72 |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cie:wpaper:0505&r=ict |