To the list of articles31 october 2001
Opening European Electricity and Gas Markets
In this paper, I take a look at market opening in European electricity and gas markets from an economic point of view, which means from three separate angles. First, I consider whether the move towards competition is being driven simply by the economics of the sector, without the need for specific interventions by governments and regulators. Second, since I will answer this first question in the negative, I will look the measures that governments and regulators need to introduce, if they are serious about introducing competition. Third, I will list some outstanding issues, ie problems that legal and regulatory institutions in European markets have yet to deal with, but which are crucial to achieving the benefits of efficient competition.