I remember that the idea of this book emerged ?rst in Toulouse, during the Third Conference on Energy Markets - 3 years ago now. Anna Cret` ? gave a talk on a model dealing with seasonal gas storage in the USA, and Christian Von Hirschausen was her discussant. Both of them were devoting their efforts to understand the natural gas market in Europe and the relevant liberalization process. I found their interest in storage rather original, so I encouraged Anna to collect the most original cont- butions on this topic. Back in Milan with this idea in mind, she organized a working group at IEFE- Bocconi University, where she works. Then, during the following year, she - changed ideas and organized several meetings with the book's contributors. She regularly invited the most important Italian gas sector representatives to these me- ings, to make sure that the economic models were well suited to tackle the issues at stake in the European gas industry.
Within the context of an evolving global market for natural gas and restructuring efforts in the European market, gas storage is an important element. Providing additional flexibility, promoting competition, and enhancing supply security are crucial factors for natural gas sector liberalization. Storage in Europe has come to the center of the energy policy debate mainly due to very cold temperatures in winter 2005/06 and gas price increases during that time period.
This book covers four main topics: development of commercial storage; access regulation; capacity allocation and market power; storage and security of gas supply. Each Chapter puts forth an innovative analytical model discussed or applied to realistically explain specific issues in one of the four biggest European gas consuming countries (France, Germany, Italy and the UK).
From the reviews:
"The book introduces new applications of economic models to describe the enlarged playing fields of gas storage operators in the competitive market. ? The book is a collection of four articles by different authors and each targets a specific sub-task in the competitive market ? . This book is definitely an important step in analyzing the complex task of storages in the gas market ? . suggested to readers that are interested in the more technical background and theory of modelling the natural gas market." (Bastian Schwark, Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, Vol. 10 (4), 2009)
