Der volkswirtschaftliche Verlust durch Stromausfälle: Eine empirische Analyse für Haushalte, Unternehmen und den öffentlichen Sektor

This work discusses different methodological approaches for the economic evaluation of electricity supply security, quantifies the expected economic costs of power outages in Austria, and provides an interpretation of the results regarding the future challenges of sustaining the currently high levels of electricity supply security. By applying a macroeconomic simulation tool, which assesses the damages of power outages which can be defined for the period between one to 48 hours taking into account the day of the week and time of day, the value of supply security can be estimated precisely with high spatial and sectoral resolution. This is demonstrated exemplarily for a power outage scenario which is similar in scope, timing and duration to a historic even in Italy in 2003 affecting over 50 million people. Decision-makers in politics and businesses can use the analysis tool APOSTEL to conduct precise evaluations of the value of supply security, for cost-benefit analyses of supply security enhancing investments, of regulatory descions which affect the level of supply securty and for many more applications with regards to energy policy. Precise knowledge of the social and economic value of a secure supply of electricity becomes even more crucial considering that the average value of lost load for a one-hour power cut in Austria on a weekday morning in the summer is calculated at 17.1 € per kWh of electricity not supplied.