Es eficiente establecer un régimen de libre competencia en el mercado de distribución y comercialización de energía eléctrica en el Ecuador dentro del actual marco normativo?

摘要

In Ecuador a natural monopoly framework has been set up for the provision of public utilities, specifically in the power distribution and commercialization market. Around the world, due to a lack of justifiable benefits, poor coverage and provision of services by state-owned enterprises brought on by said model, regulators have chosen to replace a monopolistic structure with one of free market or regulated competition, whereby economic agents both public and private interact simultaneously with each other. In spite of this, for a strategic market to fully develop in competition, it is necessary to create an economic model that stimulates the market and boosts private investment; allowing the public operator, through this, to direct its efforts to providing and guaranteeing universal access to quality goods and services that meet the citizens’ basic needs. Thus, this paper aims to introduce the reader to the legal-economic framework set forth in the Ecuadorian Constitution through a doctrinal analysis that develops the main roles performed by the State. Subsequently, an approximation to the power market in Ecuador is carried out, in order to illustrate how said market is currently operating and its main shortcomings. Through a practical study of the market, an analysis of the implementation of a legal-economic model based on regulated competition, already in application in other countries, is conducted; this, in order to prove whether or not its legally and economically feasible to open up the electricity distribution and commercialization market in Ecuador and the effects brought on.