Electricity Markets and Power System Economics

After the first power plant in history was commissioned for commercial operation by Thomas Edison on Pearl Street in New York in 1882, electricity was sold as a consumer product at market prices. After a period of rapid development, electricity had become such a fundamental product that regulation was believed to be necessary. Since then, the power industry had been considered a natural monopoly and undergone periods of tight regulation. Deregulation started in the early 1980s and as a resu...