Originally published in 1996, this book is an exploration and analysis of the electricity industry in the context of uncertainty following the energy crisis of the 1970s and concern over the greenhouse effect. Few industries demand a similar level of foresight and planning, or such vast amounts of capital. The book examines five well-known Australian, Canadian and New Zealand cases and closely analyses the ways in which various agencies have sought ends to serve the means at their disposal. Electricity has long been regarded as a natural monopoly, but questions of privatisation, regulation and government control are increasingly prevalent. The book explores these issues and also notes the experiences of other countries in its analysis of institutional reform. Aynsley Kellow argues for different approaches to electricity planning, which offer much by way of economic savings and minimisation of environmental problems.

Based on a seventeen year study of the Australian energy industry, and via the lens of Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory, Meta-Regulation in Practice argues that normative meta-regulatory theory relies on unrealistic assumptions of stakeholder morality and rationality. Meta-regulation in practice appears to be most challenged in a complex and contested environment; the very environment it is supposed to serve best.