| Author(s) |
Christophe BONNERY Etienne BEEKER Fabrice DRAMBRINE Valérie FAUDON Hélène GASSIN Patrice GEOFFRON Alexandre ROESCH Sven ROESNER Fabien ROQUES Keisuke SADAMORI Marie-Solange TISSIER Thomas VEYRENC |
| Publication type | Synthesis |
November, 22th 2018
The European electricity production and distribution system has undergone profound changes since the 1990s. Formerly governed essentially by national monopolies or oligopolies, it is now driven by a free electricity market with continuous quotation of the MWh. Public intervention has not disappeared, however, because at least two objectives have been added to the historical objective of security of supply: the European and global objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and the objective of reducing the importance of nuclear-generated electricity for the countries that produce it.
These developments give rise to a number of possible tensions, between the logic of the market and the logic of politics, between sometimes contradictory political objectives, between European policy and national policies, and between the national policies of neighbouring countries whose networks are connected but whose policies are not consistent with each other.
This document summarises the presentations and discussions that took place at the conference on the theme of "European electricity between free market and political objectives" organised by the Governance and Regulation Chair and the Conseil Général de l'Economie on 22 November 2018.
