This timely study evaluates four generic proposals for allowing free market forces toreplace government regulation in the electric power industry and concludes that none of thederegulation alternatives considered represents a panacea for the performance failures associatedwith things as they are now. It proposes a balanced program of regulatory reform and deregulationthat promises to improve industry performance in the short run, resolve uncertainties about thecosts and benefits of deregulation, and positions the industry for more extensive deregulation inthe long run should interim experimentation with deregulation, structural, and regulatory reformsmake it desirable.The book integrates modern microeconomic theory with a comprehensive analysis ofthe economic, technical, and institutional characteristics of modern electrical power systems. Itemphasizes that casual analogies to successful deregulation efforts in other sectors of the economyare an inadequate and potentially misleading basis for public policy in the electric power industry,which has economic and technical characteristics that are quite different from those in otherderegulated industries.Paul L. Joskow is Professor of Economics at MIT, author of ControllingHospital Costs (MIT Press 1981) and coauthor with Martin L. Baughman and Dilip P. Kamat of ElectricPower in the United States (MIT Press 1979). Richard Schmalensee, also at MIT, is Professor ofApplied Economics, author of The Economics of Advertising and The Control of Natural Monopolies, andeditor of The MIT Press Series, Regulation of Economic Activity.

The electric power industry in the U.S. has undergone dramatic changes in recent years. Tight regulations enacted in the 1970's and then de-regulation in the 90's have transformed it from a technology-driven industry into one driven by public policy requirements and the open-access market. Now, just as the utility companies must change to ensure their survival, engineers and other professionals in the industry must acquire new skills, adopt new attitudes, and accommodate other disciplines. Power System Operations and Electricity Markets provides the information engineers need to understand and meet the challenges of the new competitive environment. Integrating the business and technical aspects of the restructured power industry, it explains, clearly and succinctly, how new methods for power systems operations and energy marketing relate to public policy, regulation, economics, and engineering science. The authors examine the technologies and techniques currently in use and lay the groundwork for the coming era of unbundling, open access, power marketing, self-generation, and regional transmission operations. The rapid, massive changes in the electric power industry and in the economy have rendered most books on the subject obsolete. Based on the authors' years of front-line experience in the industry and in regulatory organizations, Power System Operations and Electricity Markets is current, insightful, and complete with Web links that will help readers stay up to date.