Global restructuring of network energy industries and the quest for energy security, environmental protection and sustainable development: What is the role of regulatory instruments? A Rethink of market issues and lessons from the European Union experience.

摘要

Globally, significant changes are taking place in the restructuring of the network energy industries, aimed at the introduction of competition. However, these sectors have certain characteristics which present challenging questions for these market-styled reforms. This work identifies three broad objectives which any well designed reform initiative should seek to achieve: energy security, environmental protection and sustainable development. Unfortunately, these objectives, none of which is less important, are contradictory, such that the pursuit of one normally implies undermining the others. The task in this work is to find the means of reconciling these contradictions within a restructured network energy industry. This work finds through theoretical analyses and empirical evidence that markets are incapable of fulfilling this goal alone. The question central to this work therefore is: what is the role of regulation in achieving these broad objectives?