Video of the seminar by Mar Reguant: "Improving blackout policies with smart meters"
Mar Reguant gave this seminar on the 1st of December od 2025, hosted by Albert Verdaguer and the ICMAB Sustainability Committee. You can watch the video in our YouTube channel!
Abstract
As shortages of resources like water and electricity due to extreme weather events become more frequent, high prices alone may fail to curb demand, making shortages more common. We propose a power limit policy for residential electricity households that rations electricity consumption rather than setting it to zero, as in a traditional rolling blackout. We find that power limits can provide equivalent savings to large blackouts, even when generous. Additionally, due to selection, power limits reduce the number of households affected by a shortage event. We conclude by discussing the welfare consequences of power limits and their heterogeneous impact across households.
Short bio
Mar Reguant (PhD in Economics, MIT, 2011) is an expert in the areas of electricity market design and climate policy. She has previously worked at Stanford GSB and the Toulouse School of Economics, and Northwestern University. She is now an ICREA researcher at IAE-CSIC and a professor (part-time) at Northwestern. She has received numerous awards, including a Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering (PECASE, 2019) and an ERC Consolidator grant in 2021.
