Structural and regulatory reform in Turkey: Lessons form public utilities

Turkey is one of the countries that recently initiated regulatory reform in public utilities. Although Turkey tried to introduce competition to many industries through a liberalization movement that started in the 1980s, utilities remained as monopolies until the early 2000s. In the beginning of the 2000s, reforms restructured the utilities through deregulation and competition policies and established independent regulatory agencies. Whereas the reforms have been successful in some aspects, they remain insufficient in others. This paper anecdotally investigates the effects of (de)regulation on selected public utility industries and analyzes the pros and cons of the reform process. Also, it presents a comparative analysis to better understand the current institutional and governmental issues in the reform process. The findings suggest that the recently changing stance of government towards the (de)regulatory process could thwart the success of reform.     

Smart metering interoperability issues and solutions: Taking inspiration from other ecosystems and sectors

Interoperability in the context of smart electricity metering is high on the European policy agenda, but its essence has been challenging to capture. This paper looks at experiences in other ecosystems (electromobility and buildings), in other sectors (healthcare and public administration), and at the national level in the Netherlands and the UK. We show that the definition of interoperability depends on the context, that there are common solutions to different issues across sectors and that cross-sectoral factors must be increasingly considered. We recommend adopting a broader view in smart metering beyond the interoperability of devices, considering solutions that have worked in other sectors and exploiting synergies across sectors. Our analysis of experiences provides a comparison that can help move the debate at the EU level forward.     

Liberalization and regulatory reform of network industries: A comparative analysis of Italian public utilities

This study aims to contribute investigating the difficulties to reap the intended benefits from liberalization and regulatory reforms of network industries. This issue is tackled through the ‘theoretical lenses’ of new institutional economics, in particular by applying the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. The study is a comparative analysis of liberalization and regulatory reforms of network industries within the same country context. In Italy, various reforms of network industries have been made and implemented during the 1990s and 2000s, especially in water, gas, electricity, telecommunications, railways, highways, local public transports, and urban solid waste. These reforms generally resulted in greater or lesser degrees of changes of regulatory institutions and industry structure, but in relatively modest competitive pressures on the whole. This analysis suggests that the difficulty to implement liberalization and regulatory reforms of network industries in Italy may be explained by various concurrent mechanisms, which have to do with the rent-seeking behavior of the actors of the industry’s community, the rise of barriers to entry against competitors, and the risk of collusive practices between regulators and regulated. This study suggests some tentative generalizations concerning the effectiveness of reforms intended to open up network industries to competitive pressures.     

Estimating the effects of restructuring on the technical and service-quality efficiency of electricity companies in China

One of the main objectives of China's electricity restructuring reforms of 2002 was to keep the service quality of the industry in pace with technological improvements. This study employs stochastic frontier analysis and distance functions to benchmark the service efficiency and technical efficiency of 31 power grid companies from 1999 to 2013. The empirical results show that the efficiency follows significantly different evolutionary paths after the restructuring reform of 2002. In addition, economic development has a comparatively greater influence on technical efficiency (TE), while service efficiency (SE) is more easily affected by natural factors such as weather and geographic conditions.     

Vertical relationships in China’s electricity industry: The quest for competition?

In this paper we revisit the debate on the role of vertical integration in the energy sectors: whether vertical integration between coal and electricity sectors is a path to create a competitive electricity market in China. We discuss coal-power conflict and potential anti-competitive concerns related to vertical integration, such as raise rival’s cost and collusion, and suggest that regulators and policy makers should pay more attention to the behavior of integrated companies. In particular, they should balance the tradeoff of vertical integration between coal and electricity companies and ensure that efficiency gains should offset anti-competitive effects.     

The managerial turn and municipal land-use planning in Switzerland – evidence from practice

New Public Management (NPM) reforms are intended to increase efficiency and support a more managerial approach to public problems. This paper examines how NPM-type reforms have led to the growing influence of finance and real-estate departments in local level planning in Switzerland. Drawing on over 50 interviews, the paper maps the growing influence of flexible private-law or incentive-based instruments as complements to more binding instruments (typically zoning) in land-use planning practices. NPM reforms have prompted a renewed interest in public property, forcing municipalities to position themselves in relation to the necessity to sell or retain public land. The results show that NPM has affected practices of land-use planning in Switzerland, but the outcomes are more complex than a one-to-one takeover and there is variation across the country. The Swiss case study helps extend the wider international debate about NPM and planning. This paper highlights the complex impacts of managerialism on planning reform as well as ongoing tensions between increased efficiency in plan implementation and public scrutiny.     

Plans, timetables, and delays: progress with railway reform in transition economies

This paper describes the extent of railway reform in a selection of representative transition economies and discusses some of the factors that will influence the success of the reforms in the future. Railways in the European Union’s area of influence, such as those in Poland and Romania, which are financially weak and losing market share to road transport, have advanced on the railway reform path more than those in Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine. The latter are financially strong and enjoy a dominant share of the freight market. Railway reform agendas are ambitious on paper but suffer from implementation delays. The combination of favourable financial conditions, weak inter-modal competition, and politicised decision-making slows down reform. The success of railway reform depends not only on building institutional capacity to make the railways market-oriented and adequately regulated, but also on promoting wider reforms in the economy, such as enterprise restructuring and financial sector development.     

Lessons from deregulation: Understanding electricity markets in South America

South America has been the most progressive region in the developing world in terms of deregulating the electricity industry. In this paper we compare the evolution of deregulation, from initiation to the current state, in four South American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia. These four countries are similar in many dimensions, such as culture, language and macro-economic development. They are also all depending, to a large extent, on hydro-generated electricity. All four countries have implemented different deregulated systems, allowing a unique possibility to compare the performance of different implementations of deregulation on one continent. We describe the course undertaken by these countries and the results attained so far, and also compare and contrast the development of the different electricity industries. Finally, we discuss what can be learned from these countries and what they can learn from each other.     

Electricity consumers under the state and the private sector: comparing the price performance of the French and UK electricity industries 1990–2000

Particularly because a preoccupation with process has tended to dominate the debate about electricity privatisation and liberalisation, this paper focuses on price outcomes by comparing the relative price performance of the French and UK electricity industries between 1990 and 2000. The main conclusion is that in 1990 the state-owned French electricity industry was performing better for most consumers than the state-owned UK industry, and a decade later it was still doing so with respect to the privately-owned UK industry. While this conclusion could be qualified by saying that, heavily prompted or assisted by the Regulator, the UK privately-owned industry has shown itself capable of achieving faster reductions in prices to close the gap between itself and the French, this achievement has been concentrated in the industrial market and even there the very significant gains were mainly restricted to the very largest consumers. In the context of the European Union the UK is shown to have performed relatively poorly for the smallest domestic consumers and, while both countries did much better in the rankings of industrial prices, they were still a long way behind the top performers.     

The UK railway regulatory framework

The regulatory framework of the railway system in the UK has recently changed. The Rail Regulator is the referee, and is responsible for the dominant and monopoly elements of the railway. A key element of the Regulator's agenda has been a programme of improving Railtrack's accountability to the public interest. The programme has three main elements of reform: a review of Railtrack's access charges to create a sound basis for investment (completed in October 2000, and implemented from April 2001); reform of Railtrack's network licence, which will strengthen and clarify the company's obligations; and the reforming of the access contracts, which govern the relationship between Railtrack and the train operating companies, to further provide clarity, predictability and stability. These reforms will work towards delivering a better, stronger and safer railway     

Regulatory change and innovation in Latin America: The case of renewable energy in Brazil

This article examines how market-oriented regulations have advanced renewable energy sources in Brazil. Despite efficiency and competition serving as the organizing principles for electric power reform, social and environmental considerations have steadily gained priority within energy planning. This article first analyzes the political and institutional context that gave rise to regulatory reforms in the power sector since the 1990s. The pre-existing hydropower infrastructure, both physical and institutional, is demonstrated to have created important constraints on the adoption of alternative forms of energy. Against this backdrop, it examines the factors that have enabled the share of wind and solar in the Brazilian energy supply. A central focus lies with the role of regulations and regulatory agencies that were created to govern the electricity sector. In particular, it is argued that regulators have undertaken innovative changes to encourage the use of renewable energy within the scope of their mandate. Consequently, rather than dismissing such regulatory choices as problems of weak legitimacy, future studies should unravel how regulatory agencies can ensure the long-term economic and environmental sustainability of electricity sectors in Latin America.     

市政排水事业市场化改革的几点思考

近几年来，随着我国社会主义市场经济改革的深入，要求对包括排水事业在内的市政公用事业进行市场化改革的呼声越来越高。但是，在政府、企业纷纷掀起“市场化热潮”的背后，对如何进行市场化改革，却少有系统性的研究。更重要的是，市政公用事业门类很多，各有特点，改革难点不一。以我国当前市政排水事业市场化改革中的热点问题为重点，在调查研究的基础上，从发展的角度对市政排水事业的市场化改革思路、方案进行了阐述。     

Adaptive Flüssigkeitstilger für Vertikalschwingungen von Ingenieurstrukturen – Teil 2 – Feldversuche

Adaptive tuned liquid column dampers for structures, part II – field tests. Due to increasing dynamic actions and the trend to slender structures the damping of vibrations gains in importance. One of the effective methods to reduce vertical structural vibrations is the application of classical tuned mass dampers (TMD), which are damping the vibration response of excited natural frequencies. The areas of application reach from civil and mechanical engineering to aeronautics. In addition to part I (laboratory tests) this paper shows the first application of tuned liquid column dampers (TLCD) to a vibration‐prone steel constructed railway bridge. The fluid mass is guided in a U‐tube. A gas spring enables tuning of the natural damper frequency and energy dissipation is given by turbulence effects in fluid and gas flow. In case of the TLCD there are no mechanical parts for tuning necessary. At first the mechanical model of the bridge‐TLCD coupled system is presented and the equation of motion is derived. Furthermore optimal tuning is performed. The considered railway bridge is analyzed numerically by a finite element model, including the modelling of the TLCD. The installation process of the TLCD to the railway bridge is described in detail and measuring results are presented. It is shown that the application of TLCD's to railway bridges effectively reduces bridge vibrations.     

Public-sector reform: Lessons from the privatisation experiment in Greece

This paper explores the process of public sector reform in Greece through the lens of privatisation. It is suggested that the transformation of the domestic post-war interventionist state into the current market-oriented paradigm has been disrupted and dependent on changing reform rationales. Along with the effect of historical dynamics on the direction and scale of change, the explanatory power of external determinants of reform is stressed. Findings reflect a direct linkage between the intensity of external pressure and the pace of reforms. The sustainability of gradual privatisation reforms seems more certain than the outcomes of fast-track privatisations under policy conditionality.     

北京市服务业地理集中的实证分析

利用修正后的区位基尼系数和集中一分散指标对北京市服务业地理集中进行了实证分析结果表明整体服务业呈现中心一外围的空间分布特征：服务业内部生产性服务业最为集中,公共服务业次之,消费性服务业最为分散;所有行业均存在不同程度的集中和分散特征,14个服务业行业基本可以分为显著集中型显著分散型、偏集中型,偏分散型．高度集中和广域分散型五种类型。在此基础上,进一步分析得出,影响北京市服务业地理集中的主要因素有市场需求．区位选择．产业政策和城市规划以及行业特性。     

How are public utilities responding to electricity market restructuring and the energy transition? Lessons from Israel

Public utilities in the electricity sector globally face increasing competition in the power generation segment, specifically considering government liberalization reforms that facilitate the clean energy transition process. Although the utilities may significantly impact this process, the literature has thus far neglected the perceptible strategies they employ to cope with the emerging competition, particularly with regard to renewable energy resources. This study addresses the lacuna by focusing on the case of Israel Electric Corporation (IEC), demonstrating how the coping strategies employed by this public utility evolved over time and thus shaped the local electricity sector.     

Evaluating the evidence on electricity reform: Lessons for the South East Europe (SEE) market

This paper discusses the evidence on electricity reform and relates it to the current situation of the South East Europe (SEE) electricity market. We begin by discussing the main elements of the European Union (EU) electricity reform model. Then we go on to discuss emerging good practice in the regulation of national electricity markets in the EU. This is important because it reflects the key role placed on independent regulation of the electricity sector in the EU reform model. Next, we evaluate the empirical evidence on the success of the EU reform model in particular and the success of electricity reforms more generally. This leads on to a discussion of the particular context of SEE electricity reform and what specific issues this raises. We conclude with a discussion of the importance of more general institutional context of SEE electricity reform. The paper suggests that it will be a substantial, but worthwhile, challenge to create a workable supra-national electricity market in the region.     

Coordination between clean energy generation and thermal power generation under the policy of “direct power-purchase for large users” in China

The inefficient utilization of clean energy and distorted pricing mechanism are the most critical problems that have hampered the reform of China's electric power industry for many years. A large number of clean energy generators have recently been constructed, but water spillage at hydroelectric facilities and wind curtailment persist due to integration challenges. The adjustment of electricity price has relied on executive orders of the Chinese government and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Distorted prices that are not derived from a market economy have seriously hampered the development of China's electricity market. Therefore, in recent years, the Chinese government has issued a number of reform measures concerning “direct power-purchase for large users”. The main idea of this pricing mechanism is to form direct negotiations between large users and generators to determine the electricity price. To a certain extent, this pricing mechanism is conducive to the electricity market reform in China. However, the coordination between clean energy generation and thermal power generation under the policy of “direct power-purchase for large users” has become the key issue in China's electric power industry. This paper summarizes the policies of “direct power-purchase for large users” in different provinces in China. The electricity market in Yunnan, for which the contradiction between thermal power generation and hydropower generation is increasingly severe, is the focus of the research. At last, a feasible electricity market scheme has been derived to coordinate thermal power generation and hydropower generation. This scheme has considerable theoretical and practical significance to the future of China's electricity market reform.     

The impact of renewable energy on household electricity prices in liberalized electricity markets: A cross-national panel data analysis

The main research questions addressed in this paper are: first, have electricity market reforms achieved lower household electricity prices and, second, has the introduction of renewable energy increased household electricity prices in deregulated markets Answers to the questions were derived using static and dynamic panel data analysis from 1991 to 2014 employing explanatory variables such as the extent of electricity market reform and the share of generation from renewable energy resources. The dynamic model suggests that a lower household electricity price is associated with the degree of electricity market reform, while the share of renewable energy in electricity generation is not statistically significant.     

荷兰工业用地利用政策演变与对中国的启示:公共土地开发模式与可持续的土地开发利用

本文通过分析荷兰公共土地开发模式应用于工业用地开发的背景、特征和改革方向,对比中国工业用地中土地开发模式同荷兰的差异和存在的问题,探讨其对中国工业用地市场化改革的启示。采用文献分析法和比较分析法进行研究,发现荷兰工业用地开发利用中公共土地开发模式在历史上发挥了积极作用,其改革方向聚焦于存量工业用地开发、可持续土地开发利用和提高工业物业质量。中国与荷兰在工业用地开发利用上的共同点在于政府主导工业用地供给,差异性在于中国工业用地的地价远低于土地成本价,无法实现成本回收。因此,中国工业用地政策需要改变定价方式、推动工业不动产的业态形式多样化并提升物业质量,新增工业用地面积应与存量工业用地面积相挂钩。