REVIEW OF THE ELECTRICITY POOL OF ENGLAND AND WALES FROM A DEMAND-SIDE PERSPECTIVE

The electricity pool of England and Wales was created as a generators' pool, with the twin objectives of preserving order-of-merit dispatch and setting marginal-cost pricing signals. It is becoming more apparent that these objectives are not mutually compatible. For example, over the five years since its inception, there have been repeated calls to incorporate more explicitly demand-side pricing signals into the process. A number of reviews by the Pool Executive Committee, OFFER and various consultants have looked at the issue and there have been trial periods of active demand-side bidding. This paper reviews that experience to date.