Strengths and weaknesses of traditional arrangments for electricity supply

This chapter compares the performance of traditional arrangements for electricity supply, which existed prior to the wave of restructuring that began in the late 1990s, with the restructured arrangements that emerged thereafter. The diversity of traditional arrangements is discussed, as is the different ways in which restructuring increased the roles of competition and organised markets. Comparisons are made between the performance of systems in the historical regime, in which essentially all generation is dispatchable and variable energy resources (VERs) are unimportant, and between those in the emerging regime, in which VERs play a significant role in electricity supply. The chapter relies heavily on comparisons in the United States, where traditional and restructured systems have existed side by side. The discussion of the emerging regime relies heavily on anecdotal evidence from two US states with ambitious VER goals but very different electricity supply arrangements.