Timing of Discretionary Outages. In Alberta, electricity plants built when the sector was regulated had their dispatch rights put up for auction. The Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) auctioned gave the PPA buyer the right to bid the power from that plant into the Power Pool and the revenues from dispatch. In exchange they have to pay the plant owner the costs of plant operation. A discretionary outage occurs when a plant needs to be repaired, but there is flexibility with respect to the timing of the repair. i. Explain why the timing of a discretionary outage by a PPA plant owner is potentially anticompetitive but the timing of a discretionary outage by a merchant plant ownerwhere the owner of the plant also has the dispatch rights and earns the dispatch revenues is not. ii. Suppose that there are economies of scale in the production of electricity. Explain why this would result in a trade off between the exercise of market power, as defined by economists, and investment. iii. Evaluate the claim that the effect of the timing of a discretionary outage by a PPA plant owner on market power would be disciplined by entry. iv. What do you make of the claim by PPA plant owners that if there was an effect on market power from their timing of a discretionary outage it was efficiency enhancing, i.e., resulted in more investment because prices were on average higher?