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Workshop on Competition in Small Electricity Markets

(04/01, En, Es)

The Sustainable Development Department and
the Research Department
of the Inter-American Development Bank

organized the Workshop:

Reform in Small Electricity Markets: The Role of Competition

on April 27, 2001
Room B-300, Annex B, Third Floor, 1350 New York Avenue
Washington, D.C.

Agenda
Presentations

The recent events in the California Power Market are a painful remainder that, even in the most sophisticated environments, the attainment of competitive electricity markets is not a trivial endeavor. Small countries face challenges that are even more difficult to overcome. Small market size and the absence of basic institutions required for the working of a competitive market limit the application of standard solutions. There is a need for market arrangements that maximize efficiency without jeopardizing needed foreign investment. Seeking to shed some light onto this important issue the Sustainable Development and Research departments of the Bank have joined to sponsor a discussion seminar with a distinguished panel of experts in electricity markets. We hope that the Seminar will help Bank management and professionals in understanding the real scope for competition in small electricity markets and the implications it may have for the ongoing sector reforms.

We were lucky to have four prestigious external experts as panelists. Professor Paul Joskow is the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics and Management and Director, MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research; Mr. Rafael Moscote, is the electricity regulator in Panama; Mr. John Besant-Jones is an economist at the World Bank and a co-author of its recent report on the lessons of the California experience for developing countries; and Mr. Richard Tomiak is a British consultant until recently in charge of the strategic development of one the main electricity multinationals. The panelists addressed from different points of view the difficulties encountered in attaining competition as originally envisaged. They suggested structural and regulatory measures that may help to reach a degree of workable competition without imposing unduly onerous regulatory burdens and within the constraints of a country's institutional endowment.

Last updated: 01/29/07