Virtually every country in the world faces the challenge of designing the regulatory and financial mechanisms that ensure cost-effective procurement of generation to supply electricity demand. Historically, procurement of generation has been particularly difficult in the emerging economies of...

One of the contentious issues in electricity reform is whether there are significant gains from restructuring systems that are moderately well run. South Africa's electricity system is a case in point. The sector's state-owned utility, Eskom, has been generating some of the lowest-priced...

Renewable energy plays an important role in contributing to the transition toward low-carbon development growth, in enhancing technology diversification and hedging against fuel price volatility, in strengthening economic growth, and in facilitating access to electricity.The global trends...

After decades of reduced need for investment, transmission regulation is increasingly gaining relevance and complexity in liberalised power sectors, mainly due to the need to integrate sometimes distant and large-scale renewable energy sources. We identify the key principles that should be...

This report assesses the potential of electricity contract auctions as a procurement option for the World Bank's client countries. It focuses on the role of auctions of electricity contracts designed to expand and retain existing generation capacity. It is not meant to be a 'how-to' manual....

Throughout the history of the electricity industry, regulatory reform has been driven by the pursuit of tools able to create conditions that would favour infrastructure investment and, generally, to surmount the obstacles that hinder system expansion. This article addresses the interaction...

Regulatory reforms of the electricity industry in South America have always been prompted by the need of attracting enough investment to cover the fast-paced demand growth. In order to achieve this goal, the countries in the region which in the eighties and early nineties opted for...