Energy Economics and Policy Training Course

Participants can analyse energy-market interventions using core economic methods.

• Supply and demand curves with short-run capacity constraints
• Deriving consumer surplus, producer surplus, and deadweight loss under interventions
• Price elasticity estimation using log-linear demand specifications from observed consumption data
• Market failures from emissions, public goods, information asymmetry, and market power
• Marginal cost dispatch and scarcity pricing in electricity systems
• Externality valuation using social cost of carbon estimates

Participants can evaluate energy investments using consistent financial assumptions and metrics.

• Discounted cash flow models using nominal and real cash flows
• WACC calculation from debt costs, equity returns, tax, and capital structure
• LCOE construction including capital expenditure, fuel, operations, and discounting
• System value compared with LCOE for variable renewable technologies
• Learning curves and experience rates applied to technology cost projections
• Sensitivity tables for discount rates, capacity factors, fuel prices, and inflation

Participants can assess how electricity-market rules affect investment and operational outcomes.

• Wholesale market designs: energy-only, capacity, ancillary services, and balancing
• Merit-order dispatch from marginal costs, outages, and transmission constraints
• Settlement intervals, imbalance charges, and locational price formation
• Forward contracts, futures, and hedges against power-price volatility
• Capacity remuneration mechanisms assessed for adequacy, reliability, and investment incentives
• Market power screening using residual supply index and pivotal supplier tests

Participants can compare renewable technologies using resource, cost and system-value criteria.

• Solar resource assessment using irradiance data, degradation rates, and availability assumptions
• Wind yield estimates incorporating wake losses, curtailment, and turbine availability
• Hydropower economics under hydrology risk, storage value, and competing water uses
• Bioenergy sustainability tests covering feedstock, land-use change, and lifecycle emissions
• Geothermal and marine technologies assessed through resource risk and drilling costs
• Technology selection matrices matching resource quality, grid conditions, and demand profiles

Participants can assess flexibility needs and integration costs for variable renewable generation.

• Variability metrics: capacity factor, correlation, ramp rate, and forecast error
• Net-load analysis separating demand patterns from wind and solar output
• Flexibility options compared: storage, demand response, interconnection, and flexible generation
• Battery dispatch economics using round-trip efficiency, degradation, and cycle constraints
• Capacity credit estimated with effective load carrying capability principles
• Curtailment diagnosis using congestion, negative prices, and system-operating limits

Participants can incorporate network constraints and grid access into energy decisions.

• Transmission planning distinguishes thermal limits, stability limits, and congestion costs
• Distribution impacts from rooftop solar, electric vehicles, and bidirectional flows
• Power-flow basics connect generation locations, load centres, and network losses
• Interconnection queues assessed for permitting, upgrade costs, and delivery risk
• Locational marginal pricing signals congestion, losses, and marginal generation cost
• Grid investment cases compare regulated returns, merchant revenues, and social welfare

Participants can select and assess policy instruments against stated energy objectives.

• Policy objectives translated into security, affordability, emissions, and industrial metrics
• Policy instruments compared: standards, taxes, subsidies, mandates, and procurement
• Technology-neutral auctions contrasted with administratively set feed-in tariffs
• Regulatory impact analysis defines baselines, options, costs, benefits, and distributional effects
• Policy mixes tested for interaction effects, overlap, and investment certainty
• Implementation roadmaps assign legal authority, institutions, milestones, and monitoring indicators

Participants can design renewable procurement arrangements with clear incentives and controls.

• Renewable auction design sets volumes, eligibility, ceilings, and delivery schedules
• Pay-as-bid and pay-as-clear rules compared through bidder incentives
• Contract-for-difference structures allocate wholesale price and curtailment risk
• Bid evaluation balances price, deliverability, local content, and sustainability criteria
• Performance bonds, milestones, and penalties manage non-delivery risk
• Auction results analysed for undersubscription, concentration, and strategic bidding

Participants can assess the financing structure and bankability of renewable projects.

• Project finance cash flows separate construction, operations, debt service, and distributions
• Revenue stacks combine merchant sales, contracts, certificates, and ancillary services
• Debt sizing uses debt-service coverage ratios and downside cases
• Risk allocation matrices assign construction, resource, offtake, and regulatory risks
• Bankability review tests permits, land rights, grid access, and counterparties
• Term-sheet provisions assess tenor, covenants, reserve accounts, and step-in rights

Participants can incorporate carbon economics into investment and policy analysis.

• Emissions inventories apply scope boundaries, activity data, and emission factors
• Marginal abatement cost curves rank measures by cost and reduction potential
• Carbon taxes, emissions trading, and output-based allocation compared
• Allowance price formation considers caps, banking, borrowing, and market liquidity
• Article 6 concepts distinguish corresponding adjustments from voluntary credit claims
• Carbon price scenarios integrated into generation dispatch and investment appraisal

Participants can compare sector decarbonisation options using energy-system economics.

• Electrification economics compare heat pumps, electric vehicles, and industrial motors
• Hydrogen value chains assess electrolyser load factors, transport, storage, and end-use
• Renewable fuel comparisons use energy density, conversion losses, and feedstock constraints
• Industrial decarbonisation pathways evaluate direct electrification, hydrogen, biomass, and CCS
• Demand-side management quantifies flexible load, rebound effects, and customer participation
• Sector-coupling models identify shared infrastructure, competing demand, and system benefits

Participants can estimate demand trends and appraise energy efficiency programmes.

• End-use demand forecasts combine activity drivers, intensity trends, and elasticities
• Energy efficiency cost curves distinguish technical, economic, and achievable potential
• Building retrofit appraisal models fabric measures, equipment replacement, and occupant behaviour
• Industrial energy audits prioritise motors, steam, compressed air, and process heat
• Minimum energy performance standards address information failures and split incentives
• Rebound effects incorporated when estimating savings from efficiency programmes

Participants can assess energy-security exposures and geopolitical risks in transition plans.

• Fuel trade flows link resource endowment, infrastructure, contracts, and security exposure
• Gas market pricing compares oil indexation, hubs, LNG, and destination clauses
• Critical mineral supply chains assess concentration, reserves, processing, and recycling
• Energy security indicators measure diversity, import dependence, spare capacity, and resilience
• Sanctions and trade measures evaluated for price, supply, and investment effects
• Scenario narratives connect geopolitical shocks with domestic policy responses

Participants can assess who benefits, who bears costs and how impacts can be managed.

• Distributional incidence identifies households, firms, regions, and workers affected
• Energy poverty metrics measure affordability, access, arrears, and thermal comfort
• Just transition plans connect coal retirement, labour markets, remediation, and revenue replacement
• Stakeholder mapping distinguishes rights holders, regulators, communities, and investors
• Benefit-sharing arrangements assess community payments, ownership, jobs, and procurement
• Consultation plans set disclosure, grievance, consent, and feedback mechanisms

Participants can build transparent energy scenarios for strategic choices.

• Scenario architecture defines drivers, uncertainties, constraints, and decision questions
• Reference, policy, and sensitivity cases use transparent parameter assumptions
• Excel model structure separates inputs, calculations, outputs, and error checks
• Demand projections apply GDP, population, weather, price, and technology drivers
• Supply expansion screening ranks projects by cost, timing, and feasibility
• Results visualisation communicates ranges, trade-offs, and material assumptions clearly

Participants can compare energy choices under financial, technical and policy uncertainty.

• Cost-benefit analysis discounts social costs, benefits, externalities, and residual values
• Multi-criteria decision analysis weights economic, environmental, social, and technical criteria
• Distributional analysis reports winners, losers, compensation, and affordability effects
• Real-options thinking values staged investment under policy and price uncertainty
• Monte Carlo simulation generates probability distributions for project and policy outcomes
• Decision memos distinguish evidence, assumptions, recommendations, and unresolved risks

Participants can establish governance and monitoring arrangements for energy transition programmes.

• Energy regulator mandates cover tariffs, licensing, service quality, and competition
• Utility financial models link allowed revenue, asset base, depreciation, and tariffs
• Integrated resource planning compares supply, demand, transmission, and reliability options
• Procurement governance establishes evaluation committees, conflicts controls, and audit trails
• Monitoring frameworks define baselines, indicators, data sources, and reporting cadence
• Adaptive policy reviews use trigger points, evidence updates, and revision protocols

Participants can structure a real energy decision using evidence, assumptions and stakeholder input.

• Problem statements frame investment or policy decisions with measurable objectives
• Data acquisition plans specify sources, permissions, units, and quality controls
• Assumption registers document rationale, evidence, owner, and revision history
• Stakeholder interviews elicit constraints, incentives, implementation barriers, and local knowledge
• Peer reviews test model logic, policy coherence, and decision relevance
• Executive briefing structures present findings, choices, risks, and next actions

Participants can build, review and present a decision-ready energy transition investment or policy appraisal.

• Scoping a defined energy transition decision, sponsor, boundary, and objectives
• Integrating demand, supply, cost, policy, and grid assumptions coherently
• Producing investment metrics, scenario results, distributional effects, and risk register
• Reviewing evidence quality, model checks, and recommendation traceability
• Preparing an executive decision paper with implementation milestones and monitoring indicators
• Presenting findings, responding to challenge, and revising recommended actions