  The average economic agent is often used to model the dynamics of simple
markets, based on the assumption that the dynamics of many agents can be
averaged over in time and space. A popular idea that is based on this seemingly
intuitive notion is to dampen electric power fluctuations from fluctuating
sources (as e.g. wind or solar) via a market mechanism, namely by variable
power prices that adapt demand to supply. The standard model of an average
economic agent predicts that fluctuations are reduced by such an adaptive
pricing mechanism.
  However, the underlying assumption that the actions of all agents average out
on the time axis is not always true in a market of many agents. We numerically
study an econophysics agent model of an adaptive power market that does not
assume averaging a priori. We find that when agents are exposed to source noise
via correlated price fluctuations (as adaptive pricing schemes suggest), the
market may amplify those fluctuations. In particular, small price changes may
translate to large load fluctuations through catastrophic consumer
synchronization. As a result, an adaptive power market may cause the opposite
effect than intended: Power fluctuations are not dampened but amplified
instead.
