After the first power plant in history was commissioned for commercial operation by Thomas Edison on Pearl Street in New York in 1882, electricity was sold as a consumer product at market prices. After a period of rapid development, electricity had become such a fundamental product that regulation was believed to be necessary. Since then, the power industry had been considered a natural monopoly and undergone periods of tight regulation. Deregulation started in the early 1980s and as a result, most developed countries run their power industries using a market approach.

With the...