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Parlane, Sarah
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Parlane, Sarah
Official Name
Parlane, Sarah
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Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
- PublicationOptimal Contracts for Renewable ElectricityCompanies are increasingly choosing to procure their power from renewable energy sources, with their own set of potential challenges. In this paper we focus on contracts to procure electricity from renewable sources that are inherently unreliable (such as wind and solar). We determine the contracts that minimize the cost of procuring a given amount of renewable energy from two risk-averse generators. We contrast outcomes arising when investments are set in centralised and decentralised settings, with the absence of reliability addressed by either issuing orders in excess of what is needed or by investing in improved reliability. Our results suggest that future contracts may be geared towards a greater reliance on order inflation and lower investments in reliability as the cost of renewable energy keeps falling. The implications of these results for grid congestion and electricity spot market prices should be of interest to regulators and transmission system operators.
361 - PublicationOptimal Sourcing Orders under Supply Disruptions and the Strategic Use of Buffer SuppliersThis paper analyses procurement from two, risk-averse, suppliers who are responsible for the timely delivery of some inputs. Their production is subject to inherent disruptions. We characterize the optimal contracts when suppliers can invest to lower the risk of delays that are costly to the manufacturer. When investment is contractible, we show that issuing asymmetric contracts, whereby the buyer is more heavily dependent on one supplier, is optimal as the cost associated with supply disruptions increases. When investment is not contractible, we show that large orders can be used as an incentive devise. Thus, the strategy consisting of selecting one supplier as a main producer and another as a buffer has further desirable advantages under moral hazard.
96 - PublicationOptimal Management of Supply Disruptions when Contracting with Unreliable, Risk-averse, SuppliersThis paper investigates the optimal management of supply disruptions by a manufacturer who uses order inflation and/or investments in process reliability when contracting two risk-averse suppliers. We consider that these investments can be subject to moral hazard. Technically we solve a newsvendor optimization problem using a random capacity model of disruption. In such a model, the order size does not affect the average production but impacts the probability of disruption. When investments are verifiable we show that the manufacturer is more inclined to invest in the suppliers’ reliability and then refrain from using order inflation when the suppliers’ production costs and the cost of disposing of unwanted inputs are large. When investments are not verifiable we show that the order sizes can be used strategically as incentive devises due to the suppliers’ sensitivity to payoff dispersion. We show that the manufacturer does not always increase his reliance on order inflation and face less reliable suppliers once we introduce moral hazard. In some instances he induces suppliers to undertake larger investments in reliability by increasing the order size. In other instances he is able to reduce his reliance on order inflation.
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