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The liberalization of the electricity market in Greece (Master thesis)

Γιαννακόπουλος, Νικόλαος

The electricity supply system, i.e. the production, transmission and distribution of energy, was until recently at the international level an activity strongly regulated by public authorities, in many cases it had fallen exclusively under the jurisdiction of public organizations. In recent decades, however, there has been a general tendency to liberalize these activities, in order to open them up to competition. The purpose of this work is to investigate the evolution of the organization of electricity systems from the beginnings of electricity, to identify the reasons that led from the initial free state to an increasing participation of public bodies in the organization of electricity systems that resulted in the establishment of either state, or highly regulated private monopolies, where the margins of movement were set by the public authorities responsible for electricity. Then to identify the reasons why in recent decades public intervention began to be withdrawn as universally as it was imposed internationally in previous decades, to describe the way to liberalize the market electricity and finally to make a first assessment of it effectiveness of the measures taken and the achievement of the arguments put forward in favor of liberalization. Energy is a central part of all developed economies. It is no coincidence that the European Community began its existence with treaties on coal and nuclear power. Electricity is a secondary form of energy, which allows efficient exploitation primary forms such as the heat produced by burning coal, nuclear energy, wind and others. In the European Commission's 1988 "internal energy market" working paper, it was stated that for electricity production it absorbed over 33% of primary energy consumption and 16.4% of final consumption. The importance of electricity in sectors of the economy such as industry, trade and agricultural production requires that it be optimally managed. The economic recession experienced by developed economies during the 1970s led many to question the ability of the public sector to regulate the economy efficiently and to consider the development of competition as the best solution to stagnation. The first examples of electricity liberalization came in the 1970s and 1980s and were considered successful.