Incentive regulation in electricity distribution is expected to enlarge its scope, from an input-oriented instrument to one that includes additional, output-based incentives. This creates a potential conflict with more traditional concerns for productive efficiency. In the case of Italy,...

The electricity reform in Colombia has exhibited gains in terms of reliability but its effects on firm efficiency and service quality have not been clear. Previous studies evaluating the performance of distribution companies after the reform have not found evidence of improvements, although...

Several countries around the world have introduced reforms to the electric power sector. One important element of these reforms is the introduction of an unbundling process, i.e., the separation of the competitive activities of supply and production from the monopole activity of transmission and...

This paper considers how well the approach of combining forecasts extends to the context of electricity prices. With the increasing popularity of regime switching and time-varying parameter models for predicting power prices, the multi model and evolutionary considerations that usually support...

In 2003, China's integrated electricity utility – the State Power Corporation (SPC) – was unbundled and dismantled into five generation groups and two grid companies in an effort to increase competition and improve efficiency. In this paper, we study the impact of this deregulation reform on...

The electric power industry is restructuring as regulations move from states to regional and national levels. Estimates of regional fuel and input substitution are essential for practitioners and policy makers. This paper estimates substitution under static and dynamic scenarios, examining...

China's electricity sector has experienced substantial efficiency improvement during the last one and a half decades. The recent literature has mostly attributed the efficiency improvement to the 2002 unbundling reform with little attention paid to the large scale retrofitting process introduced...

Power systems with high shares of wind and solar power have to balance their intermittent nature. Pumped-hydro storage plants can provide the required flexibility, while thermal backup plants offer an alternative. This paper proposes a capacity planning model to describe the efficient technology...

Very tight generation capacity (‘underinvestment’) in competitive electricity markets is a major concern to policymakers. Employing a model with endogenous capacity, capacity mix, operations and with uncertain demand we show that ‘underinvestment’ is due to the rational (non-abusive)...

Electricity distribution network is a prime example of a natural local monopoly. In many countries, electricity distribution is regulated by the government. Many regulators apply frontier estimation techniques such as data envelopment analysis (DEA) or stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) as an...