Evaluation of static hedging strategies for hydropower producers in the Nordic market

Fleten, Stein-Erik and Bråthen, Espen and Nissen-Meyer, Sigurd-Erik (2010): Evaluation of static hedging strategies for hydropower producers in the Nordic market. Forthcoming in: Journal of Energy Markets , Vol. 3, No. 4 (2010): pp. 1-28.

Abstract

In this paper we develop an optimization model to derive static hedge positions for hydropower producers with different risk characteristics. Previous research has primarily considered dynamic hedging; however, static hedging is the common choice among hydropower producers because of its simplicity. Our contribution is to evaluate such hedging out of sample. The hedging strategies we analyze include a natural hedge, which means no hedging, and output from an optimization model that we develop ourselves. The results show that, although optimized positions vary over time, hedging with use of forward contracts significantly reduces the risk in terms of value-at-risk, conditional value-at-risk and standard deviation of the revenue. Furthermore, this improvement results in only a minor reduction in mean revenue.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Risk management; Static hedging; Hydropower producers; Nordic electricity market; Risk premium
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D81 - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty; G - Financial Economics > G3 - Corporate Finance and Governance > G32 - Financing Policy ; Financial Risk and Risk Management ; Capital and Ownership Structure ; Value of Firms ; Goodwill; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q4 - Energy

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