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This report investigates the effects a demand based tariff would have on private electricity consumers and how it could contribute to a sustainable electrical grid. The fuse tariff that is currently used charges customers for their electricity usage and does not fully reflect the electrical grid load and thereby not the cost for the distribution system operators. A demand based tariff, that charges customers for their power peaks and promotes a change of behaviour better reflects the grid load and could lead to a more even grid distribution and a sustainable development. In light of this issue, two demand based tariffs have been constructed for the energy company Upplands Energi’s private customers’ current electricity consumption. One of the tariffs consists of a higher fixed cost and a lower variable cost and the other consists of a lower fixed cost and a higher variable cost, both leading to the same revenue för Upplands Energi. The two different demand based tariffs have been simulated and analysed, where the one with the lowest fixed cost is recommended since it gives customers higher economic incentives to change their electricity usage behaviour. It is essential that electricity retailers communicate the information of how the demand based tariff works to the customers in order to make them change their electricity behaviour to attain a sustainable grid.

published_or_final_version / Law / Master / Master of Philosophy

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This study was carried out with the aim of finding out the challenges towards Feed-in Tariff law instrument in order to promote renewable energy in Iran. The targets of the study were chosen among authorities and investors in the field of wind energy. Wind power was selected as the case study because of its more popularity among investors. Qualitative research design was used to conduct the study and semi-structured interviews served as the method. Although there were a few studies done with the focus on renewable energy challenges in Iran, however, none of them focused on the challenges through Feed-in Tariff law. The results show that the law's long administrative process, lack of communication between authorities and investors, and rather low remuneration rate are the barriers to promote renewable energy in Iran. Furthermore, lack of financial assistance and imposed political and economical sanctions against Iran play an important role in this regard.

This project examines the implications of the photovoltaic power generation as well as the battery storage systems on the distribution network tariff structures. Different types of existing distribution tariffs were applied to the residential households’ demand patterns. Several scenarios of demand profiles were theoretically investigated. First scenario included households’ consumption under current situation without on-site power production and any storage, second scenario concerned penetration of average size of solar panel installations and the last demand profile with maximum possible size of photovoltaic panels complemented with battery storage use. The distribution tariffs included in the comparison are: power based tariff and two energy based tariffs, one with flat-rate and another with time-of-use structure. Distribution tariffs were normalized with the aim to research the implications of the on-site production and storage use. Normalization factors were used when comparing financial bills from the households under above mentioned scenarios. Energy distribution tariffs have higher potential for households to save on their energy bill with the introduction of the on-site solar power utilization. On the other hand power tariff provides higher incentive for the implementation of the demand response strategies in the households.

This study challenges the long-standing thesis that by the failure to repeal or greatly reduce the war tariffs, the government and the Republican party embarked on a deliberate policy of aiding business.

Master of Arts / Department of Economics / Peri Da Silva / It is usually preached by economists that trade should be free, but in reality, it is almost always chained. The reason for this discrepancy lies in the fact that trade policies are set in political contexts in which policy makers have different objective function than maximizing economic efficiency. So, endogenous protection literature evolved around the ideas and reasons to explain trade policy as determined under specific political contexts. The early empirical work until late 1980s examined the correlation between different political factors and trade policies. These works were helpful in identifying relative importance of political economy variables, but were criticized to have specifications which were loosely linked with the theories behind them. In recent years with development of theoretical platforms, study of political economy of trade policy has moved to a more structured direction and empirical investigations have been done to link real world data with the model predictions. In this regard, Median Voter model and Grossman-Helpman (GH) model are the main branches of literature. Median Voter model predicts positive tariffs in capital-abundant countries and negative tariffs in labor-abundant ones, but in real world, negative tariffs are rare. Empirical investigation of this model tries to reconcile observed trade policies with median voter model and two of these studies are included in this report. Interest group model is the framework of Grossman-Helpman model in which the effect of organized lobbies in trade policy determination is taken into account. Two empirical studies of this model showed that real world data support this model. By employing modifications in GH model, researchers try to account for factors like lobbying competition and foreign lobbying in explaining data. These results show that foreign lobbying is not necessarily against trade and ignoring lobbying competition may lead to wrong conclusions about welfare mindedness of government.

M.Litt. et Phil. / The fundamental purpose of this dissertation is a descriptive analysis and theoretical evaluation of the economic implications of the completion of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations on South Africa's industrial and macro-economic performance. The study is an attempt to determine the impact of lower protection on the economy in general, which industrial sectors will gain/lose and how the anti-export bias inherent in South Africa's economy be influenced. A tariff is defined as a tax imposed on commodity imports. There are several types of tariffs, for instance ad valorem tariffs, specific tariffs and composite tariffs. The rationales for levying tariffs may be solely for raising revenue, in which case the home-produced product corresponding to the import would bear on equivalent compensatory tax. However, import duties are generally applied for the purpose of carrying out a particular economic policy, and in this context may be used to serve many functions, amongst others, the improvement of the terms of trade for the country levying the duty, strategic purposes and the protection of infant industries. The anti-export bias of 2,16 for total manufacturing shows the severe bias in South African policy in favour of inward industrialisation if export promotion policies are excluded from the calculations. Even the inclusion of GEIS does not bring about policy neutrality in terms of the inward and outward orientation. GEIS reduces the anti-export bias by approximately 33 percent for manufacturing from 2,16 to 1,44. Summary Page xi Although the South African tariff structure is among the most complex in the world, the level of protection is not exceptionally high. The average statutory tariff in South Africa is 27,5 per cent, which is approximately equal to the mean for a sample of 32 developing countries for which comparable data exist. The implications of the Uruguay Round for South Africa are clear cut: the country will, as a contracting party to the GATT, have to adhere to the commitments stemming from the Uruguay Round in order to benefit from the more market-oriented international trading environment. The rationale for the overall structure of South Africa's GATT offer is the desire to encourage the manufacture of potentially competitive, higher value-added products, which are either consumer products or capital goods. Beyond this, the relative neutrality of the offer is intended to encourage specialisation in fields in which South Africa has some comparative advantage. Although the GATT agreement will cause some casualties, notably in textiles, clothing and motor assembly, the economy as a whole will benefit from trade reform. The macro-economic success of trade reform should be evaluated in terms of how well the goals of reform have been attained and at what costs to the economy. Although some short term costs in terms of employment, balance of payments and income distribution could be of some concern in managing the policy changes facing South Africa, the overall findings indicate that the positive effects of the Marrakesh Agreement provide both constraints and opportunities for South Africa's effort to grow competitive industries.