EP 26

Joanne Evans, Richard Green

Why Did British Electricity Prices Fall after 1998?

EP 26  | Non-Technical Summary | PDF

Abstract: In an attempt to reduce high electricity prices in England and Wales the government has reduced concentration among generators and introduced New Electricity Trading Arrangements (NETA). Econometric analysis on monthly data from April 1996 to September 2002 implies support for two conflicting hypotheses. On a static view, increases in competition and the capacity margin were chiefly responsible for the fall in prices. If generators had been tacitly colluding before NETA, however, the impending change in market rules might have changed their behaviour a few months before the abolition of the Pool. That view implies that NETA reduced prices.

Keywords: Electricity, market power, concentration, market rules

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