The impact of heterogeneous market players with bounded-rationality on the electricity sector low-carbon transition

Authors: Barazza E., and Strachan N.

Published in:  Energy Policy Volume 138, March 2020, 111274 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111274

Date Published: 24 January 2020

Abstract: 

This paper introduces BRAIN-Energy, a novel agent-based model which explicitly allows investigation of the investment strategies of real-world actors who have bounded-rationality, and who are influenced by their past successes and failures. A comparison between the UK, Italy and Germany show how important it is to have many market participants (including SLES) for strategies to emerge that allow a rapid electricity sector low-carbon transition.

Keywords: Agent-based modelling; Bounded-rationality; Heterogeneity of actors; Investment decisions; Energy sector; Low-carbon transition

Insights for EnergyREV:

This paper introduces BRAIN-Energy, a novel agent-based model which explicitly allows investigation of the investment strategies of real-world actors who have bounded-rationality, and who are influenced by their past successes and failures. A comparison between the UK, Italy and Germany show how important it is to have many market participants (including SLES) for strategies to emerge that allow a rapid electricity sector low-carbon transition.