IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/enp/wpaper/eprg1826.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Electric Power Distribution in the World: Today and Tomorrow

Author

Listed:
  • Sinan Küfeoglu

    (Energy Policy Research Group University of Cambridge)

  • Michael Pollitt

    (Energy Policy Research Group University of Cambridge)

  • Karim Anaya

    (Energy Policy Research Group University of Cambridge)

Abstract

In light of the increasing importance of distributed energy resources (DERs) in the electricity system, there is an ongoing need to understand the current status of electric power distribution across the world. This review paper compiles key information about the distribution systems in 175 countries worldwide. The findings for each country include the number, legal structure and ownership of distribution system operators, the access to electricity they provide, distribution level voltages, electric power frequency and the significance of renewable electricity generation. This study covers 99.4% of the world’s population. As of June 2018, there are around 7600 distribution system operators in these 175 countries. After reviewing today’s distribution system status, this paper also reviews the various discussions and proposals for tomorrow’s electric power distribution. The discussion covers both system operation and market platform roles as well as data management options for DSOs in the near future.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Sinan Küfeoglu & Michael Pollitt & Karim Anaya, 2018. "Electric Power Distribution in the World: Today and Tomorrow," Working Papers EPRG 1826, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:enp:wpaper:eprg1826
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/eprg-wp1826.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Nillesen & Michael Pollitt, 2011. "Ownership Unbundling in Electricity Distribution: Empirical Evidence from New Zealand," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 38(1), pages 61-93, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michael G. Pollitt & Karim L. Anaya, 2021. "Competition in Markets for Ancillary Services? The Implications of Rising Distributed Generation," The Energy Journal, , vol. 42(1_suppl), pages 1-2, June.
    2. Paul Nillesen and Michael Pollitt, 2021. "Ownership Unbundling of Electricity Distribution Networks," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    3. Lisa Bagnoli & Salvador Bertomeu-Sanchez & Antonio Estache & Maria Vagliasindi, 2023. "Does the ownership of utilities matter for social outcomes? A survey of the evidence for developing countries," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(1), pages 24-43, January.
    4. Antonio Estache, 2020. "Infrastructure “Privatization”: When Ideology Meets Evidence," Working Papers ECARES 2020-28, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    5. Vulic, Natasa & Rüdisüli, Martin & Orehounig, Kristina, 2023. "Evaluating energy flexibility requirements for high shares of variable renewable energy: A heuristic approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    6. Lisa Bagnoli & Salvador Bertomeu & Antonio Estache & Maria Vagliasindi, 2020. "Are the Poor Better Off with Public or Private Utilities ?A Survey of the Academic Evidence on Developing Economies," Working Papers ECARES 2020-24, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    7. Theo Dronne & Fabien Roques & Marcelo Saguan, 2021. "Local Flexibility Markets for Distribution Network Congestion-Management in Center-Western Europe: Which Design for Which Needs?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-18, July.
    8. Leandro Lind & Rafael Cossent & José Pablo Chaves‐Ávila & Tomás Gómez San Román, 2019. "Transmission and distribution coordination in power systems with high shares of distributed energy resources providing balancing and congestion management services," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(6), November.
    9. Robson Porsch Delavechia & Bibiana P. Ferraz & Raul Scapini Weiand & Leonardo Silveira & Maicon Jaderson Silveira Ramos & Laura Lisiane Callai dos Santos & Daniel Pinheiro Bernardon & Rui Anderson Fer, 2023. "Electricity Supply Regulations in South America: A Review of Regulatory Aspects," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-33, January.
    10. Rahmatallah Poudineh & Donna Peng & Seyed Reza Mirnezami, 2020. "Innovation in regulated electricity networks: Incentivising tasks with highly uncertain outcomes," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 21(2), pages 166-192, June.
    11. Marius Buchmann, 2019. "How decentralization drives a change of the institutional framework on the distribution grid level in the electricity sector – the case of local congestion markets," Bremen Energy Working Papers 0031, Bremen Energy Research.
    12. Sajjad Solat & Farrokh Aminifar & Heidarali Shayanfar, 2023. "Changing the regulations for regulating the changes: From distribution system operator (DSO) to electricity distribution stakeholders’ organization (EDSO)," Energy & Environment, , vol. 34(4), pages 830-854, June.
    13. Lonergan, Katherine Emma & Sansavini, Giovanni, 2022. "Business structure of electricity distribution system operator and effect on solar photovoltaic uptake: An empirical case study for Switzerland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    14. Pedro H. Perico E Santos & Olivier Massol, 2022. "Electricity Distribution Systems in Europe : An Overview of Contemporary Regulatory Challenges," Working Papers hal-03897936, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mountain, Bruce R., 2019. "Ownership, regulation, and financial disparity: The case of electricity distribution in Australia," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Schober, Dominik, 2013. "Static vs. dynamic impacts of unbundling: Electricity markets in South America," ZEW Discussion Papers 13-033, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    3. Simshauser, P., 2020. "Merchant utilities and boundaries of the firm: vertical integration in energy-only markets," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2039, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    4. Luis R. Boscán, 2020. "European Union retail electricity markets in the Green Transition: The quest for adequate design," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(1), January.
    5. Nikogosian, Vigen & Veith, Tobias, 2011. "Vertical integration, separation and non-price discrimination: An empirical analysis of German electricity markets for residential customers," ZEW Discussion Papers 11-069, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    6. Meletiou, Alexis & Cambini, Carlo & Masera, Marcelo, 2018. "Regulatory and ownership determinants of unbundling regime choice for European electricity transmission utilities," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 13-25.
    7. Liu, Xiao-Yan & Pollitt, Michael G. & Xie, Bai-Chen & Liu, Li-Qiu, 2019. "Does environmental heterogeneity affect the productive efficiency of grid utilities in China?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 333-344.
    8. Paul Nillesen and Michael Pollitt, 2021. "Ownership Unbundling of Electricity Distribution Networks," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    9. Buchmann, Marius, 2017. "Governance of data and information management in smart distribution grids: Increase efficiency by balancing coordination and competition," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 63-72.
    10. Pollitt, Michael, 2010. "Does electricity (and heat) network regulation have anything to learn from fixed line telecoms regulation?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1360-1371, March.
    11. Szablewski, Andrzej T., 2011. "The need for revaluation of the model structure for electricity liberalization," MPRA Paper 34898, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Kuleshov, Dmitry & Viljainen, Satu & Annala, Salla & Gore, Olga, 2012. "Russian electricity sector reform: Challenges to retail competition," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 40-49.
    13. Erdogdu, Erkan, 2010. "Electricity Market Reform: Lessons for developing countries," MPRA Paper 27317, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Filippini, Massimo & Wetzel, Heike, 2014. "The impact of ownership unbundling on cost efficiency: Empirical evidence from the New Zealand electricity distribution sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 412-418.
    15. Scott P. Burger & Jesse D. Jenkins & Carlos Batlle & Ignacio J. Pérez-Arriaga, 2019. "Restructuring Revisited Part 1: Competition in Electricity Distribution Systems," The Energy Journal, , vol. 40(3), pages 31-54, May.
    16. Christian Growitsch & Marcus Stronzik, 2014. "Ownership unbundling of natural gas transmission networks: empirical evidence," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 207-225, October.
    17. Rabindra Nepal & John Foster & Antonio Carvalho, 2014. "Revisiting Electricity Liberalization and Security of Supply: Empirical Evidence," Energy Economics and Management Group Working Papers 7-2014, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    18. de Nooij, Michiel & Baarsma, Barbara, 2009. "Divorce comes at a price: An ex ante welfare analysis of ownership unbundling of the distribution and commercial companies in the Dutch energy sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5449-5458, December.
    19. Sven Heim, Bastian Krieger, and Mario Liebensteiner, 2020. "Unbundling, Regulation, and Pricing: Evidence from Electricity Distribution," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Special I).
    20. Rabindra Nepal & Flavio Menezes, 2016. "Small Energy Markets, Scattered Networks and Regulatory Reforms: The Australian Experience," Discussion Papers Series 561, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    distribution system operator; DSO; market platform; transmission system operator; TSO;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:enp:wpaper:eprg1826. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ruth Newman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/jicamuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.