Research Focus

Research Conduct

Already in ancient times Aristotle handed down the following:

Veritas est adaequatio rei et intellectus

Modern science is also bound to the truth without restriction. At the same time, energy research is a process in which a variety of aspects are involved. Therefore, free transfer of the ancient model for our research is:

Scientific truth arises where empirical perception and theoretical construction is brought into agreement.

We focus on current theories from the economics and other disciplines and address them to energy-related issues. For example, many statements on pricing on energy markets can be derived from the so-called efficiency market hypothesis. But current developments on the energy markets also give rise to the search for alternative theories on market and price developments. Thus, the impact of limited market liquidity on price formation and trading strategies is a problem that is currently being addressed by our empirical observation.

Research areas

At the Chair of Business Administration, especially Energy Economics (EWL) at the University of Duisburg-Essen, questions of energy production, transformation, distribution and utilization are examined. Under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Christoph Weber, a team of scientific staff is working on current issues in the energy industry and system analysis. In addition to business management and approaches to operations research, knowledge from other disciplines such as economics, engineering and social sciences in teaching and research are also considered. The focus is on issues that are relevant for companies in the industry in the competitive environment.

The research activities of the chair are divided into the four areas:

·         Renewable energies and networks

·         Electricity market models

·         Energy applications and innovations

·         Portfolio and risk management.

The focus of the Electricity Market Models Group is on methods, models and scenarios to describe the future development of supply, demand and transport infrastructure as well as the associated prices. The focus here is on the electricity markets, including the integration of renewable energies, as well as on the markets for natural gas and other fossil fuels as well as CO2 certificates.

The Energy Applications and Innovations Group is specifically looking into individual technologies and their integration into future energy markets, including business processes and market design. In this group, for example, micro-cogeneration plants are considered, but also future heat systems and possible market designs for regional electricity markets.

In the portfolio and risk management group, the focus is on entrepreneurial decisions in the energy market. On the one hand, methods and models are developed in order to appropriately model the volatilities and uncertainties in electricity and fuel prices for different time horizons. On the other hand, methods and tools for portfolio and risk management as well as the evaluation of power plants and storage facilities are developed and implemented as real options.

The Renewable Energies and Networks Group is currently focusing on two projects called for by the European Commission. They deal, among other things, with the modeling of uncertainties in the prediction of the wind feeds.