Electricity spot prices structural changes in the Iberian electricity market

In recent years, the power sector has undergone a restructuring process in many economies in the world. This movement towards liberalization led to the establishment of electricity markets that promote the competitiveness of the production and trading segments of the power sector. In these markets, the agents have to deal with frequent electricity price changes leading to different strategies in their daily bidding behavior. There are a set of variables that can have an impact in the electricity price definition, such as: fuel prices, CO₂ emissions prices, electricity production and demand. This paper proposes to analyze structural changes in the Iberian electricity market price between two periods of time: 2007/2008 and 2010/2011. For this purpose, three quantitative analysis methods were used: correlation, causality and Principal Components. Results suggest that the electricity price had a structural change between the analyzed periods, in particular the increasing importance of special regime production.