Date
1999-04
Dewey
Economie de la terre et des ressources naturelles
Sujet
Etats-Unis; Natural Gas Industry; Electric Power Industry
JEL code
L95; L94
Conference name
20th Annual North American Conference of the USAEE - The structure of the energy industries: the only constant is change
Conference date
08-1999
Conference city
Orlando
Conference country
États-Unis
Type
Communication / Conférence
Item number of pages
9
Abstract (EN)
Worldwide, for the last two decades, energy network industries have undergone major
changes in terms of organization and competitiveness. After restructuring reforms in the
transportation, telecom and natural gas sectors, deregulatory initiatives have been taken in the
electric power industry to eliminate traditional constraints and protectionism. An new era has
begun : in some segment of the value chain, electric monopoly activities are now open to
competition. There is lively debate about whether these experiments will succeed and how they
should be conducted.
In several countries, the electric power sector is experiencing a fundamental transformation
from a regulated market place to one exposed to the influence of market forces1. The word
'convergence' of natural gas and electricity industries is progressively used at least in North
America and currently in Europe. In the United States, the deregulation process and
technological changes are inducing the convergence of energy value chains. This phenomenon is
obvious with the wave of mergers among electric and gas utilities and it tends to invade Europe. In this paper, we will focus on a specific characteristic of the emerging competitive energy
markets : the convergence of electric power and gas utilities. In the first part, we will present the
main drivers of the growing link of gas and electricity industries in the United States. Then, in
the second part, we will analyze several impacts of the convergence of electric / gas value chains
on the new American energy market organization. Finally, we will wonder which lessons of the
American experience can be useful for the European market evolution.