Making Competition Work in Electricity - Hardcover

Sally Hunt

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471220981 ISBN 13: 9780471220985

Publisher: Wiley, 2002

Synopsis

An expert's perspective on how competition can make this industry work. There has never been a coherent plan to restructure the electricity industry in the USā??until now. Power expert Sally Hunt gets down to the critical lessons learned from the California power crisis and other deregulated markets, in which competition has been introduced properly and successfully.

Hunt presents sensible solutions to power market reform that have been cultivated over her twenty years of professional work in the industry. Sally Hunt (New York, NY) spent twenty years at National Economic Research Associates, where she was head of NERA's U.S. energy practice and a member of the board. Coauthor of Competition and Choice in Electricity with Graham Shuttleworth (0471957828), she has served as Corporate Economist at Con Edison, Deputy Director of the New York City Energy Office, and Assistant Administrator of the New York City Environmental Protection Administration. Over the years, financial professionals around the world have looked to the Wiley Finance series and its wide array of bestselling books for the knowledge, insights, and techniques that are essential to success in financial markets. As the pace of change in financial markets and instruments quickens, Wiley Finance continues to respond. With critically acclaimed books by leading thinkers on value investing, risk management,asset allocation, and many other critical subjects, the Wiley Finance series provides the financial community with information they want. Written to provide professionals and individuals with the most current thinking from the best minds in the industry, it is no wonder that the Wiley Finance series is the first and last stop for financial professionals looking to increase their financial expertise.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

The electricity industry has become one of the most complex industries around, for reasons ranging from technology to politics. The ultimate goal is to create an efficient and reliable market both for consumers and for the industry. The question is: how to go about doing this? In Making Competition Work in Electricity, power expert Sally Hunt recommends solutions to this unique problem.

Making Competition Work in Electricity is divided into two comprehensive parts. With a focus on the "standard prescription" that has been established over the past decade–as competition has been introduced into many foreign countries and areas of the United States–Part One of this valuable resource sets out and explains what needs to be accomplished for competition to work in any country. You’ll come to understand:

• The functions and traditional organization of the electricity industry
• The key technical factors that make it different from other industries
• The essential concepts of the electricity market and marketplaces
• What is needed for a competitive electricity market to thrive and mature
• Various types of trading arrangements–wheeling, integrated, decentralized
• The need for demand response in both wholesale and retail markets
• The need for restructuring of companies to enhance competition
• Why retail access should be the last step, not the first, to stimulate competition

Part Two of Making Competition Work in Electricity focuses on the United States and what needs to be done to apply the "standard prescription" to the complicated setup that currently exists. A full description of the structural and legislative changes since 1992, the state initiatives on retail access, and the new players will give you the most comprehensive overview to date of the electricity industry within the United States, why it is at an impasse, and what has to be done to resolve the problem.

Filled with expert advice and practical solutions, Making Competition Work in Electricity lays out a feasible plan for a restructured electricity industry and explores how to go about achieving this goal. Even with a specific focus on the electricity industry of the United States, this unique guide provides sensible solutions to a dilemma faced throughout the world.

From the Back Cover:

in praise of making competition work in electricity

"Here is the book I’ve been looking for to guide me through the devilishly complicated experience of electric industry deregulation..."
–From the Foreword by Alfred E. Kahn

"A thoughtful and comprehensive analysis of the issues associated with creating competitive electricity markets that work well. The book provides a clear road map for steps that the U.S. must take to make electricity industry competition initiatives a success. An essential guide for policymakers."
–Paul L. Joskow
Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"Grounded in solid theory and buttressed by extensive practical experience, Hunt’s analysis brings welcome clarity to the sometimes surreal discussion of electricity restructuring. Ignore it at your peril."
–William W. Hogan
Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Public Policy and Administration John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

About this edition

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0471220981
• ISBN 13: 9780471220985
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464