The authors of Influencia de las políticas medioambientales en los mercados eléctricos europeos – a group of power ndustry analysts working at the Technological Research Institute of Comillas Pontifical University, in collaboration with Carlos Ocaña, State Secretary of Finance and Budgets – address what is one of the major challenges facing European Union economies: how to structure a domestic electricity market compatible with their international undertakings on the control of greenhouse gas emissions.

Their approach rests on a qualitative, economic and technical analysis of the ways in which new economic instruments with an environmental protection function will affect electricity markets immersed in liberalization and deregulation processes. Among its practical expressions is an IT model capable of simulating electricity sector dynamics under oligopolistic conditions, and the market impact of interactions between direct environmental regulations, such as tradable emission permits, and renewables promotion mechanisms like green certificates or renewable energy auctions. The results thus obtained are supplemented by a series of recommendations for public policies conducive to the optimal functioning of a power market that is more integrated and competitive, and at the same time more sustainable.