Energy Economics Course

Lesson 1 • Energy Price Formation

Explains how spot, forward, and contract prices emerge in energy markets. Links price signals to investment and consumption decisions.

Lesson 2 • Market Structures in Energy Industries

Surveys competitive, oligopolistic, and monopolistic structures across energy sectors. Explains how structure shapes pricing power and investment incentives.

Lesson 3 • Energy as an Economic Good

Defines energy commodities within economic theory, distinguishing private, public, and common-pool characteristics. Establishes why standard market models require adaptation for energy.

Lesson 4 • Supply and Demand in Energy Markets

Applies core price theory to energy supply and demand curves. Connects elasticity concepts to fuel substitution and consumer response.

Lesson 1 • Fossil Fuel Trade and Geopolitics

Examines how trade flows, export restrictions, and geopolitical events affect fossil fuel prices. Builds analytical tools for assessing supply disruption risk.

Lesson 2 • Natural Gas Economics

Covers gas pricing, pipeline versus LNG trade, and regional market integration. Highlights how infrastructure constraints create persistent price divergences.

Lesson 3 • Resource Depletion and Scarcity Rent

Applies Hotelling's rule and scarcity rent theory to exhaustible fossil fuel resources. Explains how depletion expectations influence current extraction and investment.

Lesson 4 • Oil Market Structure and Dynamics

Examines upstream, midstream, and downstream segments of the global oil industry. Connects production decisions to price volatility and geopolitical risk.

Lesson 1 • Transmission Economics and Congestion

Analyzes transmission pricing, congestion rent, and grid investment incentives. Links network constraints to price divergence across market zones.

Lesson 2 • Wholesale Electricity Market Design

Covers energy-only and capacity market designs, dispatch merit order, and locational pricing. Connects market rules to investment signals and resource adequacy.

Lesson 3 • Electricity as a Unique Commodity

Identifies the physical and economic properties that distinguish electricity from storable goods. Explains why real-time balancing creates distinct market challenges.

Lesson 4 • Retail Electricity Markets

Examines retail tariff structures, consumer choice, and the economics of retail competition. Connects retail pricing to wholesale cost pass-through and demand response.

Lesson 1 • Grid Integration and Value of Renewables

Analyzes the system costs of variable renewable integration, including balancing and curtailment. Introduces the concept of market value factor and its decline with penetration.

Lesson 2 • Renewable Energy Support Mechanisms

Compares feed-in tariffs, auction schemes, renewable portfolio standards, and tax incentives. Evaluates each mechanism's effectiveness in mobilizing investment at least cost.

Lesson 3 • Cost Dynamics of Renewable Technologies

Traces learning curves and scale economies driving renewable cost reductions. Quantifies how technology maturity affects competitiveness against conventional generation.

Lesson 4 • Energy Storage Economics

Covers battery, pumped hydro, and emerging storage technologies from an economic perspective. Links storage value to arbitrage, ancillary services, and capacity deferral.

Lesson 1 • Demand-Side Management Programs

Examines utility-run and government-run demand-side management programs, their design, and cost-effectiveness. Links program design to load shape objectives and grid benefits.

Lesson 2 • Industrial and Commercial Efficiency Economics

Analyzes energy management systems, industrial energy audits, and commercial building efficiency economics. Connects operational savings to capital investment decisions.

Lesson 3 • Behavioral Economics and Energy Use

Applies behavioral economics insights to explain energy consumption decisions. Evaluates nudge-based interventions and their cost-effectiveness relative to price signals.

Lesson 4 • Economics of Energy Efficiency

Introduces the energy efficiency gap and explains market failures that prevent cost-effective investment. Connects microeconomic theory to observed underinvestment in efficiency.

Lesson 1 • Carbon Tax Design and Economics

Analyzes carbon tax rate-setting, revenue use, and distributional effects. Evaluates efficiency and political economy trade-offs in carbon tax implementation.

Lesson 2 • Social Cost of Carbon

Explains integrated assessment model methodology and discount rate sensitivity in social cost of carbon estimates. Connects estimates to policy cost-benefit analysis.

Lesson 3 • Co-benefits and Ancillary Costs of Climate Policy

Quantifies air quality, health, and economic co-benefits of carbon mitigation policies. Integrates co-benefits into comprehensive policy cost-benefit assessments.

Lesson 4 • Externality Theory and Energy Markets

Defines negative externalities in energy production and consumption and quantifies welfare losses. Establishes the theoretical basis for corrective policy intervention.

Lesson 1 • Network Utility Regulation

Compares rate-of-return, price cap, and revenue cap regulatory models for network utilities. Evaluates incentive properties and investment implications of each approach.

Lesson 2 • Regulatory Impact Assessment

Introduces structured regulatory impact assessment methodology for energy policies. Applies cost-benefit and multi-criteria analysis to evaluate proposed regulations.

Lesson 3 • Energy Subsidy Economics

Quantifies producer and consumer energy subsidies, their fiscal costs, and economic distortions. Evaluates subsidy reform strategies and their distributional consequences.

Lesson 4 • Policy Instrument Comparison

Applies economic criteria—efficiency, cost-effectiveness, equity, and feasibility—to compare regulatory instruments. Builds a structured framework for policy instrument selection.

Lesson 1 • Long-Run Energy Strategy and Scenarios

Applies scenario planning and strategic foresight to long-run energy investment decisions. Integrates economic, technological, and policy uncertainties into coherent strategic frameworks.

Lesson 2 • Decarbonizing Hard-to-Abate Sectors

Analyzes the economics of decarbonizing industry, heavy transport, and heating using hydrogen, electrification, and carbon capture. Compares abatement costs across technology pathways.

Lesson 3 • Climate Finance and Investment Mobilization

Examines green bonds, blended finance, and multilateral climate funds as instruments for mobilizing low-carbon investment. Evaluates barriers to scaling climate finance flows.

Lesson 4 • Economics of the Low-Carbon Transition

Quantifies transition costs, stranded assets, and macroeconomic impacts of decarbonization pathways. Connects sectoral transformation to economy-wide investment and employment effects.