Emerging costs deriving from blackouts for individual firms: evidence from an Italian case study

Clementina Bruno¹, Ugo Finardi²*, Azahara Lorite-Espejo¹, Elena Ragazzi²

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Among the costs deriving to firms from electric blackouts, emerging costs are the less studied ones. This work aims at shedding some light on the specific topic with an empirical approach. It performs in fact three case studies, describing blackout emerging costs for three firms of very different industries. Data obtained in the cases are described, and a cost function is tentatively sketched. Case studies show that emerging costs, though not prevailing in value over the lost production costs, may be relevant in some cases. At the end of the work, conclusions are drawn, and learned lessons are outlined.

KEYWORDS: electric power; blackout; emerging costs; case studies;
production loss.

JEL CODES: D24; D61; L94.

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¹ Dipartimento di Studi per l’Economia e l’Impresa, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Via Generale Ettore Perrone, 18, I-28100 Novara, Italy

² CNR-IRCrES, National Research Council of Italy, Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth, via Real Collegio 30, I-10024, Moncalieri (TO), Italy