PhD Defence Cristian Stet
In his dissertation Cristian Stet put forward a series of four studies which scrutinise the flexibility of power markets in relation to the growing supply from variable renewable sources. The dissertation teaches us that supply from variable renewable sources affects the flexibility needs of a power market by changing the probability distribution function of power prices and altering the relation between forward and spot power prices, reducing the power price forward premium. Cristian defended his dissertation on Friday, 29 October at 10:30h. His supervisors were Prof. Han Smit (ESE) and Prof. Ronald Huisman (ESE). The members of the Doctoral Committee were Prof. Pilar Garcia-Gomez (ESE), Prof. Yashar Ghiassi-Farrokhfal (RSM), Prof. Enrico Pennings (ESE), Prof. Mary Pieterse-Bloem (ESE) and Prof. Sjur Westgaard (Norwegian University of Science and Technology).
About Cristian Stet
Cristian Stet was born in 1990 in Sighetu Marmației, Romania. He holds a BSc in Business Administration from Babeș-Bolyai University in Romania (2011), being the valedictorian of a cohort of more than 500 students. Cristian also holds a MSc in Finance and Investments from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam (2013). Within his MSc studies he spent a semester at Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, taking classes within their MBA programme (2012). In 2017, under the supervision of Han J.T.J Smit and Ronald Huisman, Cristian started his journey as a PhD Candidate in Energy Finance within the Business Economics Department, Finance Group at Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Before embarking on his PhD track, he worked in the financial world at ABN AMRO, Rabobank and EOS Investment Management, where he acquired experience in the energy field from an advisory point of view. He also gained practical experience by managing a small family-owned business within the hospitality sector.
His main fields of research interests revolve around energy economics, energy finance and sustainability. More specifically, his research focuses on providing a better understanding on the flexibility needs of power systems in the context of an increasing share of variable renewable sources. Cristian's work was presented at international academic conferences held in Argentina, China, Greece, New Zealand, The Netherlands and United States of America. During his PhD, he was member of Erasmus Research Institute of Management PhD Council and of Erasmus School of Economics PhD Council. Moreover, he is currently a Council member and Student Representative of the International Association for Energy Economics. In parallel with developing his research, Cristian dedicated time to teaching the Energy Finance (2017-2019) and Finance for Sustainability (2020) Seminars alongside Ronald Huisman.
Thesis Abstract
With the deployment of variable renewable sources such as wind or solar photovoltaic power, electricity markets face increasing inflexibility constraints, or, in other words, increasing difficulties to swiftly adjust demand or supply in order to keep the grid in balance. The weather dependent variable renewable technologies introduce new challenges into power systems, which now must cater not only the relatively inflexible power demand but also the variation in wind and solar photovoltaic power supply.
As their output is only set to increase, it is important to understand how variable renewable sources reshape power markets and their flexibility needs. To shed more light on this topic, this dissertation puts forward a series of four studies which scrutinise the flexibility of power markets in relation to the growing supply from variable renewable sources. The dissertation teaches us that supply from variable renewable sources affects the flexibility needs of a power market by changing the probability distribution function of power prices and altering the relation between forward and spot power prices, reducing the power price forward premium.
There is one key message that emerges from this dissertation: in a world with more variable renewables the flexibility needs of power markets increase. Thus, to integrate more wind and/or solar photovoltaic power supply, we need to incentivise the deployment of flexibility offering assets. Besides building upon the existing energy finance literature, the insights presented throughout this thesis aim to help policy makers and risk managers better assess the flexibility needs of the power markets.
View photos of Cristian's PhD Defence
Photos: Michelle Muus / Michelle Muus Fotografie
