Tendencias recientes del sector eléctrico

Despite the astonishing technological advances during the last century, electricity still has to be transported from the generators to the loads by using copper or aluminum wires. This physical constraint determines that the business of transporting electricity has the economic characteristics of a natural monopoly, therefore subject to regulation. Three are the major areas that need to be regulated: investment -i.e. deciding who will build new facilities and how they will be remunerated-, access -i.e. allocating limited network capabilities whenever there is a conflict- and pricing -i.e. charging the regulated network costs to the network users-. These complex regulatory issues become even more fascinating in the context of regional or multinational markets.