Trends in the European electricity markets: the case of Greece

Abstract

Over the last decades, the structure of the European Union (EU) electricity sector has witnessed fundamental reform due to the increased complexity in interactions of political, economic and technological forces. The way electricity industry is structured is gradually evolving from vertically integrated state-owned monopolies to unbundled entities that favour free market mechanisms. The scope of this paper is to analyse the main aspects involved in the liberalisation process of the EU electricity industry and determine the progress made in less liberalised countries such as Greece, in terms of competition and regulatory reform. In order to empirically address this issue and inform policy makers, we study in-depth the case of the Greek electricity market by employing the structure-conduct-performance (S-C-P) paradigm.EU; European Union; Europe; electricity industry; market reforms; deregulation; policy issues; SCP paradigm; structure conduct performance; Greece; vertical integration; state-owned industries; nationalisation; privatisation; monopolies; unbundled entities; free market; liberalisation; competition; regulatory reform; economics; business research.