RES effects in Italian wholesale electricity market

We empirically analyze the relationship between wholesale electricity day-ahead and regulation prices in the presence of high share of RES generation. Our results only partly confirm those obtained by Skytte (1999) for the Oslo area. In the Italian case, regulating power prices follow spot prices and, in some cases, they are two or three times larger than the latter ones. We generally observe that the amount of regulation does not affect regulating power prices, even if they actually behave differently to up- and down-regulation. In addition, we find empirical evidence of very high premia for readiness with different behaviors according to Italian zones.