Power price in deregulated markets

We compare the diurnal pattern of power price for weekdays and weekends for 14 deregulated markets, and find significant differences. All markets show low early morning prices with one or more price peaks during the day and evening. North American markets show a weekday monotonic pattern; European and New Zealand markets show a "double peak" pattern. Markets differ in the ratio of daily maximum to minimum price and of average weekday to average weekend price, and hence have a different incentive for time shifting power consuming activities within and between days. Data were filtered to remove days of high or low price excursions. In some but not all markets both the average price and the diurnal price pattern change significantly; infrequent price excursions shape price patterns. Price shows a significant correlation to load in some but not all markets. Some deregulated markets have patterns that are consistent and predictable and encourage a customer to shape power consuming activities, while other markets show a far lower degree of consistency, and create a high incentive to hedge.