Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

These data were collected for a project investigating bidding behaviour in the electricity wholesale markets in England and Wales between 1996 and 2004, concentrating on the period between April 1999 and March 2001. This sub-period covered the last two years of the Electricity Pool of England and Wales, a compulsory centralised market which was abolished in favour of the New Electricity Trading Arrangements (NETA) based upon voluntary bilateral trading, as far as possible. Proponents of the change believed that the Pool had been subject to manipulation and would inevitably produce less competitive results than a more normal market.

This study comprised two parts: an in-depth investigation of bids made by individual stations, using existing industry data, and a high-level modelling exercise to simulate prices over the entire period, for which a new dataset of information on power stations, costs, and demand levels was collected. This dataset allowed the simulation of prices over the period, and to compare the simulations with actual prices. The principal investigators' hypothesis, supported by the results, was that if an unchanging simulation model provided a good fit to actual prices over the entire period, then the change in market rules did not affect the underlying relationship between market conditions and prices.

The statistics on which the new dataset was based were collected by the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) and National Grid Transco.

Details of the project and links to publications may be found on the ESRC award web page.


Main Topics:

Data cover the wholesale electricity market in England and Wales, electricity prices, and wholesale markets.

Users should note that there is no accompanying documentation for this dataset.