Lecture 1:
Constitution, legal basis and structure of the Austrian electricity industry in a historical context; recent electricity legislation in Austria (since 1999): federal act providing new rules on the organisation of the electricity sector ('Elektrizitätswirtschafts- und -organisationsgesetz (ElWOG)') implementing the EU Directives on the internal electricity market: cornerstones of the Electricity Act, evolution of the electricity market (and prices), energy-economic and structural indicators, Green Electricity Act and deployment goals for electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E), implications for emission trading.
Lecture 2:
Overview - Electricity Markets (Part 1): spot and futures markets, products (definitions, price development). - Mathematical optimisation: linear, mixed-integer, nonlinear and stochastic problems. Development of a simple linear optimisation model in GAMS.
Lecture 3:
Overview - Electricity Markets (Part 2): markets for energy services (products, changes in market strucutres). - Application: linear daily dispatch model for a hydro storage power plant with natural inflow. The objective function is to maximise the profit of hydro storage power plant operation.
Lecture 4:
Modelling of so-called 'energy-content-curves', consideration of the altitude-dependent energy value of natural inflows. - Application: Extension of the linear optimisation model. Solving the problem with successive linear optimisation techniques.
Lecture 5:
Stepwise linear modelling of turbines in hydro-based electricity systems. Modelling of ecological requirements and restrictions. - Application: Extension of the successive linear optimisation approach with the above mentioned modelling refinements.
Lecture 6:
Further extension of the model with integer variables; reduction of the planing horizon to be able to manage complexity.
Lecture 7:
Examination; oral under consideration of the individual practical examples developed in lectures 2-5.
