Abstract
Carbon costs, either in the form of a carbon tax or through permit prices in an emissions trading scheme, would ultimately be reflected in higher electricity prices. This price "pass-through" is very critical to the effective design of new policies to curb the amount of carbon emissions. This paper sets out in a structured way the factors that determine price pass-through and how carbon costs would impact on the electricity market and the existing coal-fired power plants. It is shown that pass-through can vary drastically if the underlying dispatch potential of generators varies significantly across alternative emissions reduction scenarios. It can also vary depending on the availability of competing cleaner forms of generation. Pass-through as a measure of business performance is therefore hard to generalize across different circumstances and should be interpreted carefully.
