Regulation & Investments in Energy Markets: Solutions for the Mediterranean presents the status of advancement and maturity of the Mediterranean energy policy, identifying patterns of development as well as lessons learned. Mediterranean countries are facing unprecedented challenges in the energy sector which affect the entire region. Energy policy and regulation is the key to tackling energy efficiency challenges, and providing favorable conditions for engineering infrastructures, investments, and improving security of energy supply. The assumption that the normative model, on which the EC energy policy is based, could be adopted outside EU boundaries has proven to be difficult to implement. This book looks at the Mediterranean regions search for a revised model for regulatory convergence and provides answers to those research questions, allowing the reader to understand the different technical, institutional, and financial frameworks for energy policy. Contains a detailed overview of the specificities and institutional frameworks, giving greater clarity on existing energy practice Provides recommendations and contributions from leading scholars and key players in energy policy research Presents information from a region wide interdisciplinary approach based on specific industry information

This textbook explains the main economic mechanisms behind energy markets and assesses how governments can implement policies to improve how these markets function. Adopting a micro-economic perspective, the book systematically analyses the various types of market failures on the electricity and gas markets as well as coal, oil, hydrogen and heat markets to identify government policies that can improve welfare. These shortcomings include the natural monopoly and the public-good character of energy infrastructures; market power resulting from inflexibility of supply and demand; international trade restrictions; negative externalities concerning the use of fossil energy; positive externalities concerning innovative new energy technologies; information asymmetries with regard to the product characteristics of energy commodities; and other public concerns, such as energy poverty. In turn, readers will learn about various measures that governments can use to address these market failures, including incentive regulation for electricity grids; international integration of wholesale energy markets; environmental regulatory measures like emissions trading schemes; subsidy schemes for new technologies; green-energy certificate schemes; and energy taxes. Given its scope, the book will appeal to upper-undergraduate and graduate students from various disciplines who want to learn more about the economics and regulation of energy systems and markets.

Capacity remuneration mechanisms (or simply capacity mechanisms) have become a fact of life in member states' energy markets and are one of the hottest topics in the wider European regulatory debate. Concerned about the security of electricity supply, national governments are implementing subsidy schemes to encourage investment in conventional power generation capacity, alongside already heavily subsidized renewable energy sources. With the increasingly connected European electricity markets, the introduction of a capacity mechanism in one country not only tends to distort its national market but may also have unforeseeable consequences for neighbouring electricity markets. As these mechanisms are adopted by member states with limited supra-national coordination as well as consideration for the cross-border impact, they tend to cause serious market distortions and put the future of the European internal electricity market at risk. This second edition will take stock of how capacity mechanisms have actually worked so far and consider the consequences they have for the European internal electricity market. It will include a detailed overview of national capacity mechanisms, their implications for the EU internal market, and will outline the nature of market failures which are likely to occur in the European electricity markets. This edition is intended to serve as a point of reference for regulators and policy-makers on how to design optimal capacity mechanisms in Europe. It will be an invaluable resource for anyone interested in energy market design, regulation, and competition issues.

Regulation of the Power Sector is a unified, consistent and comprehensive treatment of the theories and practicalities of regulation in modern power-supply systems. The need for generation to occur at the time of use occasioned by the impracticality of large-scale electricity storage coupled with constant and often unpredictable changes in demand make electricity-supply systems large, dynamic and complex and their regulation a daunting task. Arranged in four parts, this book addresses both traditional regulatory frameworks and also liberalized and re-regulated environments. First, an introduction gives a full characterization of power supply including engineering, economic and regulatory viewpoints. The second part presents the fundamentals of regulation and the third looks at the regulation of particular components of the power sector in detail. Advanced topics and subjects still open or subject to dispute form the content of Part IV. In a sector where regulatory design is the key driver of both the industry efficiency and the returns on investment, Regulation of the Power Sector is directed at regulators, policy decision makers, business managers and researchers. It is a pragmatic text, well-tested by the authors’ quarter-century of experience of power systems from around the world. Power system professionals and students at all levels will derive much benefit from the authors’ wealth of blended theory and real-world-derived know-how.

La 4e de couverture indique : "Since the introduction a quarter-century ago of market-based investments in the production of electricity and other critical services, our awareness of the underlying issues affecting the supply and consumption of energy has changed radically. No longer can Europe (or any region) rely on over-capacity of electricity generation and inexpensive primary energy fuels, or disregard the signs of potentially catastrophic climate change. The author of this timely and sharply focused book shows that, in the light of our current knowledge, ensuring new investments - and the right investments - in electricity generation constitutes an urgent energy policy challenge facing the EU over the coming decades. He accordingly makes the case for a serious reconsideration of the market facilitation and market intervention rules under electricity market legislation in the EU. In the first detailed legal analysis of the EU's internal electricity market framework for investments in electricity generation facilities from the perspective of security of supply, this book cover such legal issues as the following in precise detail : applicability of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) ; security of supply as a ground for exemption on the basis of public security ; justifications of public intervention ; the applicability of EU State aid provisions to investments in energy security ; requirements imposed by EU law on Member States for ensuring cost-efficient investments in European supply security ; facilitation of renewable energy sources and cogeneration in the environmental interest ; the Court of Justice's approach to Member State interventions ; the Court's decisions on restrictions on free movement in the environmental interest ; Member States' right to launch tendering procedures for new generation capacity ; Member States' right to impose public service obligations in the general economic interest on certain undertakings ; and relationship between the provisions of the TFEU and those of the Euratom Treaty in relation to investments in nuclear power generation. Throughout the study, in addition to his analysis of the decisions of the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance, the author takes into account legal literature and Union reports, preparatory works, and working papers. The book demonstrates convincingly that today's energy supply challenges must be based on a broader balancing of security, competitiveness and sustainability interests. It suggests that the internal electricity market provisions of the Electricity Directive and the Security of Electricity Supply Directive would benefit from focusing more intensely on requiring investments in technologies and primary energy sources that will help mitigate climate change and reduce European energy import dependency, and less on the need for ensuring cost-efficient investments through market-based means. Through its detailed analysis of EU law in an area of great significance to both market participants and the public sector, Investing in EU Energy Security will be welcomed by legal advisors, whether working for the EU electricity industry or public agencies responsible for implementation of internal electricity market measures, as well as by academics in this hugely important field of current research."

Liberalisation in the power sector is high on the agenda of policy makers, regulators and the industry around the world. There is growing recognition of the benefits of power marker liberalisation and the need to further integrate regional markets in a liberal trade and investment environment. This volume brings together articles written by leading experts in the field of electricity trade and regulation in Europe. Organised in two parts, the contributions cover a range of issues from market structure, trade flows, infrastructure and investment to the regulatory framework within which the industry operates, including international trade rules and national technical, environmental and regulatory regimes. These are complex and sensitive issues requiring an in-depth understanding of the economics and regulation of the electricity trade and the primary object of this volume is to contribute to an informed debate on the subject. To this end, the contributors demonstrate how a competition ?friendly and liberal environment for electricity trade, including a system of non-discriminatory and transparent access to transmission and distribution networks, could contribute to improving market integration, economic efficiency , supply security and environmental health.

Main description: This supplement to Applied Economics Quarterly reports on the 70th Annual Meeting of the Association of German Economic Research Institutes (ARGE-Institute), which took place in Berlin on April 19, 2007. The topic was "Energy Markets - Investment, Competition, and Regulation."Energy markets pose a major challenge for the economy, politics, and society: the entire structure of power generation is on the verge of a fundamental renewal. By dealing with the important current question of how regulation will affect investments in generation and transmission capacities within liberalized electricity and gas markets, the conference offered useful contributions for policy advice to the federal government. Keynote speaker Carl Christian von Weizsäcker discussed investments in energy markets, while Jean Michel Glachant, the second keynote speaker, considered the choice between a "Vibrant European Market and Industry or a Bunch of National Energy Champions." The other lectures focused on alternative strategies for renewable energies, biofuels as a climate policy strategy, as well as innovation, competition, and asymmetric strategic investment. From the editorial by Wolfgang Franz / Rainer Winkelmann / Klaus F. Zimmermann