03-02-2025 © Deep Kiran, IIT Roorkee (2025) 1

EEN/L-671:
RESTRUCTURED POWER
SYSTEMS
LECTURE 7: Fundamentals of Markets
03-02-2025 © Deep Kiran, IIT Roorkee (2025) 2

Example
• Economists estimate that the supply function for the
widget market is given by the following expression: 𝑞 =
0.2𝜋 − 40. The demand is defined as 𝜋 = −10𝑞 +
2000 [₹]. Calculate the effect on the market equilibrium of
the following interventions. In each case, calculate the
market price, the quantity transacted, the consumers’ net
surplus, the producers’ profit and the global welfare.
Illustrate your calculations using diagrams.
• A minimum price of ₹900 per widget
• A maximum price of ₹600 per widget
03-02-2025 © Deep Kiran, IIT Roorkee (2025) 3

Example
• The demand curve for a product is estimated to be given
by the expression: 𝑞 = 200 − 𝜋. Calculate the price and
the price elasticity of the demand for the following values
of the demand: 0, 50, 100, 150 and 200. Repeat these
calculations for the case in which the demand curve is
given by the expression: 𝑞 = 10000/𝜋.
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Theory of Firm
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Various costs of production

• Fixed costs: Costs that do not depend on the production
level
• Cost of land and machinery of a power plant
• Variable costs: Costs proportional to level of production
• Fuel cost of generating plant
• Quasi-fixed cost: Costs that appear in full irrespective of
level of production, but are absent if there is no production
• Start-up cost of a thermal generating plant
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Costs
• Cost function of a generating plant:
𝑐 𝑦 = 𝑐𝑓 + 𝑐𝑣 𝑦

• Average cost per unit of production is given as:

𝑐(𝑦) 𝑐𝑣 (𝑦) 𝑐𝑓
𝐴𝐶 𝑦 = = + = 𝐴𝑉𝐶 𝑦 + 𝐴𝐹𝐶(𝑦)
𝑦 𝑦 𝑦

• AVC: Average variable cost

• AFC: Average fixed cost
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Various Average Costs

AFC AVC AC

y y y

Average fixed cost Average variable cost Average cost

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What is marginal cost (MC)?

𝑑𝑐(𝑦)
𝑐 𝑦 = 𝑐𝑓 + 𝑐𝑣 𝑦

𝑑𝑦

y y

Total cost Marginal cost

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Example
• A manufacturer estimates that its variable cost for
manufacturing a given product is given by the following
expression: 𝐶(𝑞) = 25𝑞2 + 2000𝑞 [₹] where C is the total
cost and q is the quantity produced
• Derive an expression for the marginal cost of production.
• Derive expressions for the revenue and the profit when the widgets
are sold at marginal cost.
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Attendance
• MS Teams: l6ahq8m
• Please ensure 75% of attendance for ETE.

• Please finalize a paper from IEEE TEMPR in a team of two.

Please get it confirmed from me at the earliest!
• Brief introduction to the work done in the chosen paper.
• What was the situation before the authors did the work? What was the
motivation for the authors that led them to do this work?
• Describe the methodology of the work in the chosen paper. Explain the
optimization model.
• Describe the key numeric results given in the paper which justify the
findings of the paper.
• What do you think about the actual implementation/ validation/ testing
of the work proposed in real life world/ test bed?

• Friday: 10 – 11 am
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What is the difference between average

cost and marginal cost?
• Both costs are expressed as ₹ / unit produced
• Marginal cost (MC) reflects cost of last unit produced
• Average cost (AC) reflects cost of all units already
produced
• Fixed costs (FC) do not reflect in MC
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Relation between average cost and

marginal cost?
MC AC

• For low production levels, MC is

smaller than AC because of effect
of FC
• For higher production levels, MC
is higher than AC
• MC curve intersects AC curve at
its minimum

y
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Costs: Numerical example

Q Fixed cost Variable cost Total cost AFC AVC AC MC
0 1000 0 1000
10 1000 120 1120 100 12 112 22
20 1000 440 1440 50 22 72 42
30 1000 960 1960 33.33333 32 65.33333 62
40 1000 1680 2680 25 42 67 82
50 1000 2600 3600 20 52 72 102
60 1000 3720 4720 16.66667 62 78.66667 122
70 1000 5040 6040 14.28571 72 86.28571 142
80 1000 6560 7560 12.5 82 94.5 162
90 1000 8280 9280 11.11111 92 103.1111 182
100 1000 10200 11200 10 102 112 202
110 1000 12320 13320 9.090909 112 121.0909 222
120 1000 14640 15640 8.333333 122 130.3333 242
130 1000 17160 18160 7.692308 132 139.6923 262
140 1000 19880 20880 7.142857 142 149.1429 282
150 1000 22800 23800 6.666667 152 158.6667 302
160 1000 25920 26920 6.25 162 168.25 322
170 1000 29240 30240 5.882353 172 177.8824 342
180 1000 32760 33760 5.555556 182 187.5556 362
190 1000 36480 37480 5.263158 192 197.2632 382
200 1000 40400 41400 5 202 207 402
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Costs: Numerical example

45000

40000

Fixed cost Variable cost Total cost

35000

30000

25000
Cost

20000

15000

10000

5000

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200
MW
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Costs: Numerical example

450

400

350
AFC AVC AC MC

300

250
Cost

200

150

100

50

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200
MW
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Short-run and long-run

• Many variables of production
• All factors do not affect the output in the same way
• Some factors affect in immediate way (short-run) while
others take long time to be effective (long-run)
• In short-run, some of the production factors are fixed
• Long-run provides time sufficient enough to adjust various
factors
• Short-run: output depends on single factor of production,
rest are fixed
• Long-run: All factors of production can be adjusted
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Short-run and long-run

• Long run cost calculation is complex
• More degrees of freedom available
• Analogy: Increasing power transfer capability of a
transmission corridor:
• Short-run: install a capacitor bank
• Long-run: build a parallel line
• Decisions about power system operation are short-run
• Decisions about power system planning are long-run
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Example
• Demonstrate that the marginal production cost is equal to
the average production cost for the value of the output
that minimizes the average production cost.
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Example
• A firm’s short-run cost function for the production of
gizmos is given by the following expression: 𝐶(𝑦) =
10𝑦 2 + 200𝑦 + 100000
• Calculate the range of output over which it would be profitable for
this firm to produce gizmos if it can sell each gizmo for ₹2400.
Calculate the value of the output that maximizes this profit.
• Repeat these calculations and explain your results for the
case in which the short-run cost function is given by
𝐶(𝑦) = 10𝑦 2 + 200𝑦 + 200000
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Relation between long-run and short-run

average costs
AC in short-run Long-run AC
AC in short-run big factory
small factory
Price per vehicle

`
AC in short-run
medium factory

Vehicle manufactured per day

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Long-run and short-run

• The long-run cost curve provides a lower envelope for all
short run average cost curves.
• This peculiar relationship exists because of flexibility
associated while obtaining long-run cost curve
• As the firm moves from small size factory to medium size factory,
the cost per vehicle starts reducing till a certain point
• As long as the average production cost decreases, the
product is said to display economies of scale.
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Perfectly competitive market

• Atomicity: Large number of small players
• Complete information: consumers and sellers know the
prices set by all firms
• Free entry: No firm has barrier for entry into or exit out of
market

All producers are price takers in perfectly competitive

market
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Firm’s supply decision under perfect

competition
max[𝜋 × 𝑦 − 𝑐 𝑦 ]
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Revenues of the firm

• Total revenue:
• πxq
• Average revenue:
• (π x q)/q
• Marginal revenue:
• change in revenue from sale of addition output
• Marginal revenue is ‘π’ in perfectly competitive case
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Firm’s supply decision under perfect

competition • For q1, marginal revenue is
greater than marginal cost.
• Hence tendency to increase output
Cost and revenue

• For q2, reduced production

MC leads to saving in marginal
cost which is greater than
marginal revenue.
• Hence, tendency to reduce the
output

MC2
AC

π*=MR1=MR2
π*=AR=MR
AVC

MC1

q1 q* q2 Quantity
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Imperfect Competition
• The firms decide upon the quantity produced so as to
have direct effect on market price
• Prices can be manipulated by:
• Withholding the quantity
• Raising the asking price
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Common forms of imperfect competition

• Monopoly: only one seller
• Oligopoly: finite small number of sellers
• Monopsony: only one buyer
• Oligopsony: small number of buyers of good
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Monopoly
• Monopoly firm is a sole seller of product
• Fundamental cause of monopoly is barrier to entry:
• Key resource for production is owned by a single firm
• Government gives exclusive rights to a single firm
• Costs of production make a single producer more efficient than
large number of producers
• An industry is a natural monopoly when a single firm can
supply a good to an entire market at a smaller cost than
two or more firms
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Competitive firm Vs. monopoly

Competitive Firm Monopoly

• Small size relative to the • Single producing firm

market • Ability to influence the
• Price taker price of its output
• Faces a horizontal • Faces a market demand
demand curve curve (downward sloping)
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Competitive firm Vs. monopoly

𝜋
𝜋

Demand curve
Demand curve
𝜋 ∗= 𝑀𝑅
Marginal revenue curve

Marginal revenue curve

q q

Competitive firm Monopoly

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Profit maximization by monopolist

price

MC

B
π*

AC
A
Demand

MR

q1 q* q2 Quantity
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Oligopoly
• Modeling of oligopoly:
1. Cournot Model: firms decide quantity that they produce
2. Stackelberg Model: firms decide quantity that they
produce
3. Bertrand Model: firms decide the price

Perfect
Monopoly Oligopoly
Competition