Electricity in Europe [antikvár]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The electricity supply industry (ESI) of the European Community (EC) is in tuimoil, partly because of initiatives taken in Brussels but more importantly because of internal debates. Change in many systems is either under, or on, the way, but since the changes are not always motivated by the same concerns, they are not necessarily moving in the same direction. However, in almost every country the primary place of the self-sufficient utility is under challenge, a trend reinforced by growing interest in interconnection and independent generation across the Community. The motives include: • financial constraints; • lacklustre performance; • political pressure, both ideological (towards competition or environment) and pragmatic (seeking to gain control); • utility initiative to pre-empt other changes. In Greece, Portugal and to some extent Italy, the policy is motivated partly by a mix of constrained financial resources and poor performance, and partly by the election of governments ostensibly more committed to non-state solutions to those problems. In the UK these factors are also important, though the ideological element has been far more significant. These motives are reflected in the solutions adopted: independent power and possible privatisation in Greece, Italy and Portugal; full-scale privatisation and deregulation in the UK. In France and Ireland, the financial stress is not so great, the performance has not been so poor, the governments not so ideological. Correspondingly, the changes proposed have been less dramatic. For the most part, they have involved some restructuring of the existing vertically integrated utility. Both industries are to some extent also looking towards outside markets, though in different ways: France through its adventures into the rest of the Community and towards the East; Ireland in its less visible but highly successful consultancy activity and in its interest in greater energy connections to the UK. The systems in the Netherlands and Denmark have opted for a path of internal reform and the primary external pressure has been government attempts to respond to environmental pressures. Both countries have seen the process of change acted out as a struggle between the distribution companies and higher levels of the industry. To some extent, the German system fits this model, as evidenced by the interest of local authorities in using utilities for energy and environmental objectives though the dominance of powerful and effectively autonomous production and transmission companies works against such pressures. A balance has to be struck between these different interests, but the question is whether it can be sustained, particularly in the foimer GDR. The Spanish and Belgian systems, which are with Germany the other predominantly privately-owned ESIs, are also engaged in a pre-emptive consolidation of activities though in both cases they face governmental pressures to reorganise (more so in