ECE464 Introduction to Energy Economics

The topics covered in the course include:

• Economics and economy.
• Productivity Curve and Market Functioning.
• Microeconomics and Macroeconomics.
• Demand, Supply and the concept of the Market as an Architecture, with technical characteristics and relationships with the Information Economy
• Market equilibrium and imbalance.
• Elasticity.
• Consumer options and demand decisions.
• Bid decisions
• Cost and supply.
• Perfect competition and pure monopoly.
• Market structure and imperfect competition.
• Energy economy.
• Fuel and energy content.
• Design based on financial indicators.
• Demand management with information from market systems.
• IT and energy infrastructure links.

The course is a basic introduction in the concepts of economics and energy.
The aims of the course are:

• Introduction to the basic concepts of economics and their applications to the energy industry
• Understanding the specificities of energy
• Introduction to the structure of the electricity markets and their architecture as real-time energy pricing mechanisms.
• Discussion of the introductory concepts of fuel economy and energy saving and energy management in financial terms and criteria
• Understanding of the importance of electricity in a country’s progress and growth, and in the contemporary global economy

Upon successful completion of the course students will be able to:

• Have an understanding of the key and critical features of the economic concepts, of energy economics and their relation to the economy
• Comprehend and utilize financial problem solving tools and techniques.
• Analyze and calculate the key elements of the energy market systems
• Have an overall understanding of the processes and methodologies used to energy economy problem solving, and the IT infrastructure of intelligent energy systems, where the real-time demand management primary information derive from energy economics.