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Abstract:
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"Todays electric sector is highly complex, with multiple actors and technical options for meeting consumers needs. Electricity was once seen as the textbook example of a monopoly good, due to its reliance on large, capital-intensive coal, nuclear, and hydroelectric power plants with declining marginal costs of production. By the end of the 20th century, however, the monopoly assumption had been discarded, and states began to restructure electricity markets to allow new sources of generation, primarily natural gas-fired power plants, to compete with more traditional sources. New technologies have also become available that blur the lines between producer and consumer. Factories, for example, can convert waste heat to electricity, and residential customers can self-generate using small- scale renewable systems. Nor are these changes limited to the supply side of electricity. Advances in energy efficiency allow consumers to reduce their energy use in ways that, when aggregated, can avoid or forestall the need for new sources of supply. All of these changes increase the complexity of electric utilities generation decisions."
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