User:Oceanflynn/sandbox/Economic withholding

Economic withholding is defined as the practice of offering blocks at high, non-competitive prices that effectively reduces or withholds the quantity of supply offered at competitive prices. Generators "offer their available electricity to the market for dispatch on the grid" but they raise the price so high the electricity is not dispatched. In this way economic withholding is "an exercise of market power" which intentionally raise prices above competitive levels.

Debate
By 2002, according to a Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) report there was already a debate around how to define and measure competitive levels.

Rising price of electricity through economic withholding
In Alberta, Canada, through the practice of economic withholding a single electricity provider drove up prices on four occasions in May and June, of 2015 during a period of surplus power supply.

"""Power generators are required to offer their available electricity to the market for dispatch on the grid, but they can choose the price they want for it. If it is priced too high, it might not be dispatched.""

- Darcy Henton Calgary Herald 5 September 2015