Low‐carbon energy policy analysis based on power energy system modeling

Abstract The effect of carbon policies and mechanisms on the behavior of market participants and market equilibrium has been increasingly recognized, of which tax incidence is one of these important issues. Tax incidence is the market output of both producers and consumers that respond to taxes with market equilibrium, whether the tax is levied on sellers or buyers. This paper aims to study the carbon tax incidence on the transmission level of a power system based on different carbon tax collection methods in electricity market environment. A statistical demand elasticity model, power flow and carbon emission flow models are applied to simulate the electricity market equilibrium to analyze the effects of the tax levied on demand‐side or supply‐side. Furthermore, the Australian 59‐bus system is employed in the case study with four stages and four main cases. The results demonstrate that consumers share more burden of the carbon tax in all carbon tax collection methods. Moreover, the proportion of the tax burden and emission reduction effect are different in each method and degree of renewable energy capacity. The results of this paper contribute to the establishment of emission‐related energy policies toward a low‐carbon economy.