End of Monopoly: Competition in Electric Markets-Comparative Studies

ISBN-13: 9783846546147 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 380 str.

Cezley Sampson

Opis

Electricity has over the last 50 years been recognised as a natural monopoly, with almost universal operation as a vertically integrated state owned enterprise or as a private firm with public regulation. Since the 1980s combined cycle gas turbine and smart metering technologies have ushered in very powerful forces which have increasingly led to separation of the industry into a competitive generation and a retail supply sector and a regulated network natural monopoly sector. Whilst privatisation has been seen as a necessary condition for efficiency improvements it is competition which has provided the necessary incentive for increased efficiency gains and the maximisation of consumer welfare. The result is that new institutional forms; single buyer, wholesale bulk electricity market and retail competition have transformed the industrys landscape. There are however, strong vertical economies which continue to present problems of market power, despite physical separation. Governments however are now presented with new institutional policy options to better shape the future of the industry.

O autorze

Dr. Cezley Sampson has been an International Infrastructure Consultant for three decades, currently with CPCS of Canada. He has served as Special Adviser on Privatisation, Competition and Regulation to the Prime Minister of Jamaica and in the 90s was Executive Director at UWI responsible for the establishment of the Mona School of Business, Jamaica.