Electricity investment: an evaluation of the new British energy policy and its implications for the European Union

Traditionally, the electricity market has been characterized by vertically integrated monopolies due to the special features of this commodity, such as non-storability in the longer term, the physical laws requiring instant equation of supply and demand and the need for a complex and integrated network, controlled by a system operator. Despite these features, however, a wave of reforms promoting competition has been initiated in most markets, including the US and Europe, accompanied by regulation. In this paper we offer an overview of the current electricity policy debate taking place in the UK, which may pose the basis for a rethinking of the dominant policy paradigm. We review the technological and economic features of electricity markets, focusing on the rationales underlying the reforms put in place in the European Union and highlighting the impacts and potentially problematic consequences of liberalization in terms of investment and infrastructure, related to overarching economic, social and policy goals, focusing on the implications of environmental and climate-change mitigation policies as well as poverty reduction issues. The paper analyses the possible consequences, in terms of reforms and regulation of the electricity industry, of these new goals, suggesting that they may be relevant for the electricity industry in the EU.