The Cost of Fairness in Electricity Markets

European policymakers argue that bidding zones with uniform prices ensure fairness in electricity markets. Since the outcome of such a fair spot market is often infeasible due to network constraints, a second stage is needed: the redispatch. I establish a mechanism design result showing that even a minimal fairness restriction on the first stage strictly increases procurement costs for asymmetric dispatches. In detail, I analyze a market-based redispatch mechanism where inc-dec gaming creates arbitrage profits for those producers that benefit the network the least. These results identify a general cost of fairness in sequential markets and question uniform bidding zones in electricity markets.

Linnenbrink, Daniel (2026), The Cost of Fairness in Electricity Markets, ZEW Discussion Paper Nr. 26-040, Mannheim.