Dr M. (Mohammad) Ansarin

Trinomics

Former ERIM PhD Candidate

Field: Logistics & Information Systems

Affiliated since 2015

I research the economics of the energy system. I'm less interested in oil and gas and more so in renewables.

I study urban heating systems and their migration away from carbon-intensive sources within the Flexsus project (flexsus.org). This project is a collaboration between academia and 2 Danish municipalities and studies the transition of their heating systems to more sustainable and long-term options. Here, I focus on the distributional effects of retail pricing for urban heating systems.

I also conduct research on the economic consequences of renewables growth. The economic inefficiencies and inequities of small-scale renewables installed by households and small businesses is especially interesting to me. These effects are often hidden behind retail price descriptions and within externalities, yet increasingly burden many communities as renewables continue to grow. I wrote my PhD thesis about this subject.

Previously, I've also researched agent-based simulations of the electricity grid (Power TAC; powertac.org). Agent-based modeling performs remarkably well for simulating the complex web of relations and dependencies in the economic system supporting the modern electricity grid. I've used Power TAC to study the mechanism designs of electricity balancing and wholesale markets. I look forward to continuing this research in the future.

I've also taught many courses over the span of 12 years on subjects ranging from software development management to energy systems to English essay writing.

In 2021, I completed doctoral studies at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. In a previous life, I received an MSc in biomedical engineering (Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey) and a BSc in mechanical engineering (Sharif University, Tehran, Iran).

PhD Track The Economic Consequences of Electricity Pricing in the Renewable Energy Era

Policymakers create incentive schemes to encourage uptake of distributed renewable energy resources (D-RES) by smaller electricity users to replace some pollutant generation. These incentives sometimes conflict with the existing economic relationships between retailers and consumers. The tariffs defining these relationships are designed on certain principles, of which equity and economic efficiency are directly impacted by high D-RES growth. This thesis details the influence of growing D-RES on the equity and economic efficiency of electricity tariffs. First, a map of the research into equity is provided in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3, the thesis investigates and separates the role of metering infrastructure and tariffs in creating inequities within household populations. Chapter 4 investigates how growing D-RES installations impacts the efficiency and equity of multiple tariffs. Chapter 5 complements this study by describing the economic inefficiencies of D-RES remuneration, which cause over- or under-installations of D-RES. Newer time-based pricing schemes are necessary to prevent high (and probably undesirable) inefficiency and inequity within and between household populations. Installing smart meters is a prerequisite for these tariffs. Using extra meters at the generation resource simplify paying for D-RES generation, but the improvements for inequity are comparatively small. This thesis provides insights for businesses and policymakers in the energy industry, particularly those involved with D-RES.

Keywords: Electricity tariffs, tariff design, renewable energy, equity, economic efficiency, smart meters, energy, subsidies, solar panels
Time frame: 2015 - 2021

Publications

Abstract (1)

Academic (1)
- Ansarin, M., Ghiassi-Farrokhfal, Y., Ketter, W., & Collins, J. (2018). Cross-subsidies in Energy Co-operative Tariff Designs.

Article (5)

Academic (5)
- Ansarin, M., Ghiassi-Farrokhfal, Y., Ketter, W., & Collins, J. (2022). A review of equity in electricity tariffs in the renewable energy era. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 161, Article 112333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2022.112333
- Ansarin, M., Ghiassi-Farrokhfal, Y., Ketter, W., & Collins, J. (2022). Economic inefficiencies of pricing distributed generation under novel tariff designs. Applied Energy, 313, Article 118839. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.118839
- Fretzen, U., Ansarin, M., & Brandt, T. (2021). Temporal city-scale matching of solar photovoltaic generation and electric vehicle charging. Applied Energy, 282, Article 116160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.116160
- Ansarin, M., Ghiassi-Farrokhfal, Y., Ketter, W., & Collins, J. (2020). The Economic Consequences of Electricity Tariff Design in a Renewable Energy Era. Applied Energy, 275, Article 115317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115317
- Ansarin, M., Ghiassi-Farrokhfal, Y., Ketter, W., & Collins, J. (2020). Cross-subsidies among residential electricity prosumers from tariff design and metering infrastructure. Energy Policy, 145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111736

Conference proceeding (8)

Academic (8)
- Ansarin, M., Ghiassi-Farrokhfal, Y., Ketter, W., & Collins, J. (2022). Economic inefficiencies of pricing distributed generation under novel tariff designs. In International Association for Energy Economics Online Conference (Vol. 313)
- Ansarin, M., Ghiassi-Farrokhfal, Y., Ketter, W., & Collins, J. (2020). Economic Inefficiencies of Distributed Generation under Novel Tariff Designs. In International Conference on Applied Energy
- Ansarin, M., Ghiassi-Farrokhfal, Y., Ketter, W., & Collins, J. (2019). Increasing Renewables In Energy Cooperatives Leads To Higher Cross-Subsidies, Depending On Tariff. In 42nd IAEE Conference (International Association for Energy Economics)
- Ansarin, M., Ghiassi-Farrokhfal, Y., Ketter, W., & Collins, J. (2017). Cross-subsidies in Energy Cooperative Tariff Designs. In Workshop on Information Technology & Systems (WITS)
- Ansarin, M., Ghiassi-Farrokhfal, Y., Ketter, W., & Collins, J. (2016). A cooperative aggregation model for pricing residential energy users with renewable energy sources. In Workshop on Information Technology and Systems
- Ansarin, M., Ketter, W., & Collins, J. (2016). Analyzing and improving the energy balancing market in the Power Trading Agent Competition. In IEEE Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Europe (pp. 1) https://doi.org/10.1109/ISGTEurope.2016.7856197
- Ansarin, M., Ketter, W., & Collins, J. (2016). Dynamic peak demand pricing under uncertainty in an agent-based retail energy market. In International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, AMEC/TADA Workshop
- Ansarin, M., Ghiassi-Farrokhfal, Y., Collins, J., & Ketter, W. (2016). A Demand Response Model for Residential Energy Cooperatives with Distributed Generation. In Workshop on Information Technology and Systems (WITS)

Doctoral Thesis (1)

Internal (1)
- Ansarin, M. (2021). The Economic Consequences of Electricity Pricing in the Renewable Energy Era. [Doctoral Thesis, Erasmus University Rotterdam]. Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR).

Event (1)

2021

October

The Economic Consequences of Electricity Pricing in the Renewable Energy Era

PhD Defence

As: Contact, Speaker

Address

Postal address

Westersingel 34
3014 GS Rotterdam
Netherlands

Article

Ansarin, M., Ghiassi-Farrokhfal, Y., Ketter, W., & Collins, J. (2022). A review of equity in electricity tariffs in the renewable energy era. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 161, Article 112333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2022.112333