MacKerron, Gordon --- "Electricity in England and Wales: Efficiency and Equity" [2003] ELECD 44; in Glachant, Jean-Michael; Finon, Dominique (eds), "Competition in European Electricity Markets" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2003)

Book Title: Competition in European Electricity Markets

Editor(s): Glachant, Jean-Michael; Finon, Dominique

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843761785

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: Electricity in England and Wales: Efficiency and Equity

Author(s): MacKerron, Gordon

Number of pages: 16

Extract:

2. Electricity in England and Wales:
efficiency and equity
Gordon MacKerron

INTRODUCTION

This chapter looks at the experience of the UK electricity supply industry
since 1990 and asks questions about its future evolution. The industry has
been in a process of almost continuous reinvention ever since the large
structural changes of 1990. In the later 1990s and 2000 there have also been
modifications to the original policy objectives, which were mostly con-
cerned with promoting economic efficiency. Greater attention to objectives
of equity and environmental protection has been characteristic of the late
1990s, and a major reform of the wholesale trading system took place in
April 2001. An important part of the forward look in this chapter is, there-
fore, to examine the ways in which these new developments, especially
potential conflicts between efficiency and equity, may play out in the future.
The wider significance of the changes in the UK has not been that they
were either the first or, in all areas, the most radical. They were certainly
radical enough in relation to past European practice. But their significance
is also that they have been extremely influential in shaping reform processes
elsewhere, including the European Union. Beyond Western Europe, places
as diverse as Colombia, Ukraine and Orissa (India) have been deeply influ-
enced by the `UK' model, especially via the strong British consultancy
industry. The successes and failures of the English experience are therefore
of special international significance.


BACKGROUND: THE SHAPE OF THE INDUSTRY IN
THE UK

The ...