Preliminary Study Of Reform In Electricity Retail Segment

The finial aim of the market-oriented reform in many countries' electricity sectors is to transfer the benefits to consumers by competition. Retail is just the most direct and last segment in which the aim can be accomplished and retail competition model is the ultimate reform pattern. The difference between England &Wales and California's practice in reform's path and performance shows that the reform of retail electricity competition will not succeed if we only focus on industrial restructuring without essential matching reform in price system. Under some particular condition, say, a harsh climate or shock loading, reform would become a disaster just like California electricity crisis. On the other hand, by developing a model, considering unique physical and economic attributes of electricity and those influence on retail competition, we find that, when consumers are equipped with TOU meters, Ramsey optimum can be achieved though restructure reform is not introduced . That's to say, retail keeping monopoly, it is possible to achieve Ramsey optimum by introducing some specified retail price reform. This point can also be seen in Zhejiang Province's case of TOU price innovation in electricity sector. It needs further study whether Ramsey optimum can be achieved or not when consumers are equipped with other kinds of meters.