Since the late 1980s, policy makers and regulators in a number of countries have liberalized, restructured or "deregulated their electric power sector, typically by introducing competition at the generation and retail level. These experiments have resulted in vastly different outcomes - some highly encouraging, others utterly disastrous. However, many countries continue along the same path for a variety of reasons. Electricity Market Reform examines the most important competitive electricity markets around the world and provides definitive answers as to why some markets have performed admirably, while others have utterly failed, often with dire financial and cost consequences. The lessons contained within are direct relevance to regulators, policy makers, the investment community, industry, academics and graduate students of electricity markets worldwide. - Covers electicity market liberalization and deregulation on a worldwide scale - Features expert contributions from key people within the electricity sector
The past thirty years have witnessed a transformation of government economic intervention in broad segments of industry throughout the world. Many industries historically subject to economic price and entry controls have been largely deregulated, including natural gas, trucking, airlines, and commercial banking. However, recent concerns about market power in restructured electricity markets, airline industry instability amid chronic financial stress, and the challenges created by the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which allowed commercial banks to participate in investment banking, have led to calls for renewed market intervention. Economic Regulation and Its Reform collects research by a group of distinguished scholars who explore these and other issues surrounding government economic intervention. Determining the consequences of such intervention requires a careful assessment of the costs and benefits of imperfect regulation. Moreover, government interventions may take a variety of forms, from relatively nonintrusive performance-based regulations to more aggressive antitrust and competition policies and barriers to entry. This volume introduces the key issues surrounding economic regulation, provides an assessment of the economic effects of regulatory reforms over the past three decades, and examines how these insights bear on some of today’s most significant concerns in regulatory policy.
. . . this volume comes across as one of the most profound sources on the specifics of European electricity market restructuring. Competition and Regulation in Network Industries The SESSA study on the Internal Energy Market was an important and influential contribution towards the Commission s proposal for a third package of proposals, intending to bring more effective competition and better security of supply to Europe s energy markets. This volume, based on the results of the study is an important and welcome contribution to the ongoing debate on these proposals. Andris Piebalgs, Commissioner for Energy at the European Commission The chapters in this book are written by the leading European scholars who have studied the structure, behavior and performance of liberalised electricity markets in many European countries as well as in other regions of the world. Both the analyses and the policy recommendations contained in this volume are well worth careful consideration by policymakers in Europe, as well as by policymakers in other countries that are seeking to adopt successful electricity sector liberalisation programs. From the foreword by Paul L. Joskow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US Dynamism or dissipation? Competition or national champions? Will enlargement promote or delay reform? Energy economists contemplate the challenges posed by the restless and discontent European Commission. Stephen Littlechild, University of Birmingham and Judge Institute for Management Studies, University of Cambridge, UK The challenge of European electricity reform is being met, although gradually, delays notwithstanding. This book provides precious help in spotting where the necessary further efforts should be directed. In the US mistakes and delays have occurred, no less than in Europe, but an aggressive federal regulator (absent in Europe) is working to overcome them. Electricity markets do not happen, they have to be built. Here are suggestions for a workable European market design. No ideology, just competence and wisdom from both theory and experience. Will Europe learn? Pippo Ranci, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy The realisation of a European internal market for energy is still a work in progress. Written by leading European scholars and discussed with major energy stakeholders, this book presents a thorough analysis of the motives and methods needed to achieve a single European energy market. The authors discuss the critical issues surrounding an internal European energy market including: market design, competition and market power, sustainable energy versus the market, regulation and harmonisation, benchmarking and indicators, modelling of competition, market prices and energy forecasts. They provide a multi-disciplinary assessment of the best way to build the market base of a future European energy policy. Electricity Reform in Europe will be of great interest to decision makers and managers in the energy industry or business sector as they will be able to see the whole European energy policy picture beyond their own corporate interests. The book will also appeal to national and European energy administrations, regulatory bodies and policy makers providing a synthesis of all relevant policy issues.
This book analyses the development of choice and competition in the Electricity Supply Industry (ESI). Drawing on a review of the international experience, it describes the main approaches that are being developed, discusses the key issues in the effective reform of electricity markets and provides an assessment of the emerging approach to reform. The book is written from the perspective of regulators and policy makers. It seeks to answer the question: what is an effective regulatory framework for competition in electricity markets?
During the 1990s, a new paradigm for power sector reform was put forward emphasizing the restructuring of utilities, the creation of regulators, the participation of the private sector, and the establishment of competitive power markets. Twenty-five years later, only a handful of developing countries have fully implemented these Washington Consensus policies. Across the developing world, reforms were adopted rather selectively, resulting in a hybrid model, in which elements of market orientation coexist with continued state dominance of the sector. This book aims to revisit and refresh thinking on power sector reform approaches for developing countries. The approach relies heavily on evidence from the past, drawing both on broad global trends and deep case material from 15 developing countries. It is also forward looking, considering the implications of new social and environmental policy goals, as well as the emerging technological disruptions. A nuanced picture emerges. Although regulation has been widely adopted, practice often falls well short of theory, and cost recovery remains an elusive goal. The private sector has financed a substantial expansion of generation capacity; yet, its contribution to power distribution has been much more limited, with efficiency levels that can sometimes be matched by well-governed public utilities. Restructuring and liberalization have been beneficial in a handful of larger middle-income nations but have proved too complex for most countries to implement. Based on these findings, the report points to three major policy implications. First, reform efforts need to be shaped by the political and economic context of the country. The 1990s reform model was most successful in countries that had reached certain minimum conditions of power sector development and offered a supportive political environment. Second, countries found alternative institutional pathways to achieving good power sector outcomes, making a case for greater pluralism. Among the top performers, some pursued the full set of market-oriented reforms, while others retained a more important role for the state. Third, reform efforts should be driven and tailored to desired policy outcomes and less preoccupied with following a predetermined process, particularly since the twenty-first-century century agenda has added decarbonization and universal access to power sector outcomes. The Washington Consensus reforms, while supportive of the twenty-first-century century agenda, will not be able to deliver on them alone and will require complementary policy measures
With twenty-two chapters written by leading international experts, this volume represents the most detailed and comprehensive Handbook on electricity markets ever published.
Over the past fifteen years, the United States, Western Europe, and Japan have transformed the relationship between governments and corporations. The changes are complex and the terms used to describe them often obscure the reality. In Freer Markets, More Rules, Steven K. Vogel dispenses with euphemisms and makes sense of this recent transformation. In defiance of conventional wisdom, Vogel contends that the deregulation revolution of the 1980s and 1990s never happened. The advanced industrial countries moved toward liberalization or freer markets at the same time that they imposed reregulation or more rules. Moreover, the countries involved did not converge in regulatory practice but combined liberalization and reregulation in markedly different ways. The state itself, far more than private interest groups, drove the process of regulatory reform. Thus, the story of deregulation is one rich in paradox: a movement aimed at reducing regulation increased it; a movement propelled by global forces reinforced national differences; and a movement that purported to reduce state power was led by the state itself. Vogel's astute and far-reaching analysis compares deregulation in Britain and Japan, with special attention to the telecommunication and financial services industries. He also considers such important sectors as broadcasting, transportation, and utilities in the United States, France, and Germany.
After 2 decades, policymakers and regulators agree that electricity market reform, liberalization and privatization remains partly art. Moreover, the international experience suggests that in nearly all cases, initial market reform leads to unintended consequences or introduces new risks, which must be addressed in subsequent “reform of the reforms. Competitive Electricity Markets describes the evolution of the market reform process including a number of challenging issues such as infrastructure investment, resource adequacy, capacity and demand participation, market power, distributed generation, renewable energy and global climate change. Sequel to Electricity Market Reform: An International Perspective in the same series published in 2006 Contributions from renowned scholars and practitioners on significant electricity market design and implementation issues Covers timely topics on the evolution of electricity market liberalization worldwide
