Gert Brunekreeft Libros

The study’s recommendations describe institutional elements in the context of electric power sector regulation and has the objective to increase the understanding of the interdependencies of the institutional elements. In future work, the study results might be employed for designing very specific regulatory policies. The recommendations developed in this study focus primarily on the regulatory framework for smart grids and contains a quite detailed description of how the German electricity markets evolved. It also focuses on the effects of ambitiously expanding generation capacities of renewable energy sources (RES) on established electricity markets. The presented evidence will provide insights on how the regulatory framework in China could be designed to foster smart grids developments in the context of establishing electricity markets and expanding RES generation capacities.

In contrast to other European member states, Germany chose to refrain from regulating the monopoly parts in the electricity market at liberalization in 1998 and instead to strengthen the role for competition policy. Using law and economics, this study analyses this institutionally exceptional situation theoretically and empirically. Reflecting the relevant aspects of an electricity industry, the theoretical part relies on the theory of vertical relations and regulatory economics. The empirical part contrasts the developments in Germany with New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In both the first two, competition policy was dominant, although decisively different. The analysis concludes that the lack of regulation in an electricity market is institutionally unstable. Not surprisingly, under pressure of the European Commission a regulator for the German electricity industry will have to take up its duties in July 2004, providing the issue with a highly topical dimension. This book is the author’s Habilitation-thesis and aims in first instance at an academic audience, but is relevant and readily accessible for policy-makers, regulators and consultants as well.