This book examines the economics of an industry that has become a critical component of modern life - the electric utility industry. The public nature of electricity has affected the development of the industry, both private and public. While this book focuses on private utilities, it recognizes the potential for a resurgence of public ownership. The objective of the book is to examine factors that will affect the evolution of markets for power. Of critical importance is the role of information, which is required for making and evaluating decisions in power markets. This book demonstrates that utilities can exploit information as a source of market power, impeding the development of more competitive and efficient markets. To a large extent the source of the utilities' market power is the ability to specify computer models used in the planning, pricing and operation of markets for electricity. A number of concepts related to the use and control of information and models are developed in this book.

Modem industrial society functions with the expectation that electricity will be available when required. By law, electric utilities have the obligation to provide electricity to customers in a "safe and adequate" manner. In exchange for this obligation, utilities are granted a monopoly right to provide electricity to customers within well-defmed service territories. However, utilities are not unfettered in their monopoly power; public utility commissions regulate the relationship between a utility and its customers and limit profits to a "fair rate of return on invested capital. " From its inception through the late 1970s, the electric utility industry's opera tional paradigm was to continue marketing electricity to customers and to build power plants to meet customer needs. This growth was facilitated by a U. S. energy policy predicated upon the assumption that sustained electric growth was causally linked to social welfare (Lovins, 1977). The electric utility industry is now in transition from a vertically integrated monopoly to a more competitive market. Of the three primary components (generation, transmission, and distribution) of the traditional vertically integrated monopoly, generation is leading this transformation. The desired outcome is a more efficient market for the provision of electric service, ultimately resulting in lower costs to customers. This book focuses on impediments to this transformation. In partiCUlar, it argues that information control is a form of market power that inhibits the evolution of the market. The analysis is presented within the context of the transformation of the U. S.