IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/juipol/v39y2016icp41-49.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A perspective on the rise and fall of the energy regulator in Britain

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas, Steve

Abstract

The process of Electricity Market Reform instigated in 2010 is leading to fundamental reforms to the UK electricity market. Despite its previous strong presence in the policy process, the British energy market regulator, OFGEM, appears to have only a minimal role in the implementation of these reforms. This article reviews the history of OFGEM, including expectations for the agency when it was established and how it evolved over time. From this perspective, several factors that might have contributed to OFGEM's apparent marginalisation are identified. These include perceptions of a poor track record, a tendency of governments to bypass the regulator for decisions deemed important, and the subordination of economic issues to climate-change priorities.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas, Steve, 2016. "A perspective on the rise and fall of the energy regulator in Britain," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 41-49.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:39:y:2016:i:c:p:41-49
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2016.02.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0957178716300339
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jup.2016.02.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chris M. Wilson & Catherine Waddams Price, 2010. "Do consumers switch to the best supplier?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 62(4), pages 647-668, October.
    2. Thomas, Steve, 2006. "The grin of the Cheshire cat," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(15), pages 1974-1983, October.
    3. Thomas, Steve, 2006. "The British Model in Britain: Failing slowly," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 583-600, March.
    4. M.E. Beesley & S.C. Littlechild, 1989. "The Regulation of Privatized Monopolies in the United Kingdom," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 20(3), pages 454-472, Autumn.
    5. Helm, Dieter & Jenkinson, Tim (ed.), 1998. "Competition in Regulated Industries," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198292524.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fuentes González, Fabián & Webb, Janette & Sharmina, Maria & Hannon, Matthew & Braunholtz-Speight, Timothy & Pappas, Dimitrios, 2022. "Local energy businesses in the United Kingdom: Clusters and localism determinants based on financial ratios," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PB).
    2. Li, Francis G.N. & Trutnevyte, Evelina, 2017. "Investment appraisal of cost-optimal and near-optimal pathways for the UK electricity sector transition to 2050," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 89-109.
    3. Fuentes González, Fabián & Webb, Janette & Sharmina, Maria & Hannon, Matthew & Pappas, Dimitrios & Tingey, Margaret, 2021. "Characterising a local energy business sector in the United Kingdom: Participants, revenue sources, and estimates of localism and smartness," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    4. Luis Ferney Moreno Castillo (Director editorial) & Carlos Villanueva (Coordinación), 2022. "Anuario iberoamericano de derecho de la energía. Volumen IV, Hacia un derecho global de la energía," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Derecho, number 1345.
    5. Steve Thomas, 2019. "Is the ideal of independent regulation appropriate? Evidence from the United Kingdom," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 20(3), pages 218-228, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Erdogdu, Erkan, 2007. "Regulatory reform in Turkish energy industry: An analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 984-993, February.
    2. Sokołowski, Maciej M. & Heffron, Raphael J., 2022. "Defining and conceptualising energy policy failure: The when, where, why, and how," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    3. Jupe, Robert, 2009. "A “fresh start” or the “worst of all worlds”? A critical financial analysis of the performance and regulation of Network Rail in Britain’s privatised railway system," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 175-204.
    4. Mehdi Farsi & Aurelio Fetz & Massimo Filippini, 2007. "Benchmarking and Regulation in the Electricity Distribution Sector," CEPE Working paper series 07-54, CEPE Center for Energy Policy and Economics, ETH Zurich.
    5. Johnstone, David & Havyatt, David, 2022. "Sophistry and high electricity prices in Australia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    6. Jim Lewis & Kerrie Mengersen & Laurie Buys & Desley Vine & John Bell & Peter Morris & Gerard Ledwich, 2015. "Systems Modelling of the Socio-Technical Aspects of Residential Electricity Use and Network Peak Demand," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-21, July.
    7. Adler, Nicole & Forsyth, Peter & Mueller, Juergen & Niemeier, Hans-Martin, 2015. "An economic assessment of airport incentive regulation," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 5-15.
    8. Griffin, Míde & Lyons, Sean & Mohan, Gretta & Joseph, Merin & Domhnaill, Ciarán Mac & Evans, John, 2022. "Intra-operator mobile plan switching: Evidence from linked survey and billing microdata," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(7).
    9. Kim, Kyungah & Choi, Jihye & Lee, Jihee & Lee, Jongsu & Kim, Junghun, 2023. "Public preferences and increasing acceptance of time-varying electricity pricing for demand side management in South Korea," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    10. Waters, II, W.G. & Tretheway, Michael W., 2000. "Labor Payouts, Productivity Measurement and the Price Cap Approach to Regulation," Journal of the Transportation Research Forum, Transportation Research Forum, vol. 39(1).
    11. Yvrande-Billon, Anne & Menard, Claude, 2005. "Institutional constraints and organizational changes: the case of the British rail reform," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 675-699, April.
    12. Øystein Foros & Mai Nguyen-Ones & Frode Steen, 2021. "The Effects of a Day off from Retail Price Competition: Evidence on Consumer Behavior and Firm Performance in Gasoline Retailing," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 49-87, January.
    13. Olga Bogdanova & Karīna Viskuba & Laila Zemīte, 2023. "A Review of Barriers and Enables in Demand Response Performance Chain," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-33, September.
    14. Johan Almenberg & Artashes Karapetyan, 2009. "Mental accounting in the housing market," IEW - Working Papers 453, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    15. Peter D. Lunn & Marek Bohacek, 2017. "Price transparency in residential electricity: Experiments for regulatory policy," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 1(2), pages 31-37, September.
    16. Andrew Powell, 1996. "Sobre la reestructuración, regulación y competencia en el sector de servicios públicos: experiencia del Reino Unido y sus implicaciones para América Latina," Research Department Publications 4039, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    17. Belton, Cameron A. & Lunn, Peter D., 2020. "Smart choices? An experimental study of smart meters and time-of-use tariffs in Ireland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    18. Clifton, Judith & Díaz-Fuentes, Daniel & Fernández-Gutiérrez, Marcos, 2013. "How consumers’ socio-economic background influences satisfaction: Insights for better utility regulation," MPRA Paper 47271, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Michael Grubb, 2015. "Failing to Choose the Best Price: Theory, Evidence, and Policy," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 47(3), pages 303-340, November.
    20. Francesco Prota, 2002. "Water Resources And Water Policies," Working Papers 8_2002, D.E.S. (Department of Economic Studies), University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:39:y:2016:i:c:p:41-49. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/utilities-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.