the integration of variable renewable energies requires new and appropriate regulatory and operational frameworks to properly move towards more efficient and reliable lowcarbon electricity systems while their name implies a focus on the long run availability of power generating capacity their true role could be much larger capacity markets could actually play a key role in integrating different flexibility services including shortterm demand curtailment storage access to interconnections and of course capacity itself in a single framework where decisions are made at the margin according to the variable costs of different options over different time frames