1. Introduction Power industry deregulation and electricity market restructuring, which began in Chile in the 1980s and then spread to Norway, New Zealand and the UK, were introduced in the United States with the passage of the Energy Policy Act (EPA) of 1992 (Jameson, 1997). The EPA and subsequent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Orders led to the restructuring of vertically integrated electric utilities, the establishment of Independent System Operators (ISO) and Regional Transmission Organizations (RTO) and the development of competitive wholesale power markets. Deregulation also led to the creation of various electricity contract–based financial derivative products. In 1996, the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) created the US’s first electricity futures, the Palo Verde and California/Oregon Border contracts, which were traded for physical delivery (Warwick, 2002). While these products were eventually delisted in 2002, other exchange-traded and OTC contracts, for both physical and financial settlement, have been introduced on numerous exchanges, including the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and markets operated by ISOs and RTOs. From the start, deregulation of the electricity industry has been a contentious and controversial subject, its economic, political and social ramifications hotly debated in the US and abroad. The debate continues, and as of September 2010, fifteen states and the District of Columbia have deregulated electricity markets, seven have suspended restructuring activities and twenty-eight have no deregulatory legislation or restructuring activities to speak of (FERC, 2010).

Power System Deregulation is a trend, and it takes place when the government, reduces unnecessary intervention and relaxes the control of capacity and price for the electricity market. It can establish the market mechanism and create rules that facilitate competition. The intention is to raise the market efficiency, introducing various types of production technologies and marketing management. As a result, it should create higher added value and ensure customer rights and interests to reach a win-win situation from both parties. In this thesis, a maximum profit will be pursued in the security market by the use of the Enhanced Immune Algorithm and Signal-to-Noise Ratio search under deregulated environment. Participation of generator companies and distribution companies are determined by ISO depending on their individual contributions to join the security market. The monetary influence is also discussed by using the social welfare. In this thesis, optimization will be considered when a line trip could lead to system congestion under security analysis. Tracing was used to find GenCos and DisCos¡¦s contributions to the transmission lines. ISO determines the participants to join the security market according to the tracing results. For the same fault type, various dispatch fees of the bids from participants will have various impacts on ISO¡¦s dispatch in terms of social welfare in the security market. Various fault types will also be discussed for the impacts of dispatch fees over ISO. This research could also provide a solid foundation for power system deregulation in the future. ISO can forecast the cost for a fault, and maximizes social welfare.

<p>Railways have played an important role for the Swedish economy throughout the 20th into the 21st century since it provides good connections between urban and rural regions and also within them. However, it has been very costly for the state to run this activity and a significant effort to reduce costs and to increase the efficiency for this sector was to introduce procurement auctions where also private firms are invited to lay bids.</p><p>Four auctions have taken place in Jönköpings Län since its introduction in 1990. It has been a turbulent time economically for the winning bidders and the phenomena winner’s curse is evident where the bidder with highest over-estimate wins and therefore faces high costs or low returns.</p><p>This study points at flaws in the auction design as the reason for the economical difficulties for the winning firms. If second-price sealed bid auctions or first-price sealed bid auctions were used instead of a combination of first-price sealed auction and English auction, the winner’s curse phenomena could be reduced or even eliminated.</p>

The dynamics of airline deregulation have resulted in significant changes in airline competition and network structure. This dissertation examines airline competition and network structures in the presence of low-cost entry in a deregulated environment. / The first chapter investigates the effect of low-cost entry on the equilibrium network choice of a monopolistic air carrier. This essay differs from previous analyses in that it incorporates asymmetric city sizes, and distances as a determinant of costs into the model. Numerical exercises illustrate that the threat of entry may result in an entry accommodating, an entry deterring or even an interlining equilibrium, depending on demand and cost conditions and on the level of fixed costs of connecting city pairs. In particular, when the demand in city-pair markets are identical and cities are equal distance apart, the monopolist restructures its network in an attempt to minimize the competitive effect of entry. If demands vary across city pairs and distance is a factor of cost, then the restructuring of the network may be an entry deterring strategy. The incorporation of distance not only influences the number of direct connections between city pairs but may also affect how city pairs are connected within the network. / In Essay Two the model is extended to a duopolistic airline market in which network structures are endogenously determined by the competition between two incumbent airlines; numerical exercises are then used to demonstrate how the threat of entry by a low-cost airline affects the network choices of these incumbent carriers. The main result of the essay is that, in many situations, incumbent carriers restructure their networks in order to compete with potential entrants. The results indicate that incumbents' response to the threat of entry depends on the potential entrant's cost advantage and on the fixed costs of connecting city pairs. In particular, if the fixed costs of connecting city pairs are low and the cost advantage of the entrant is significant then entry may not affect the network structure of incumbent carriers. However, at higher fixed costs at least one incumbent will adjust its network in an attempt to soften the competitive effect of entry. Furthermore, the numerical exercises show that the threat of entry not only affects the equilibrium network structure but may also result in one incumbent leaving the industry and the potential entrant actually entering. / Essay Three studies network competition and welfare implications in partially and fully liberalized transatlantic markets using the model developed in Essay Two. This essay illustrates some conditions under which the price and welfare effects of an open-skies agreement depend on the equilibrium network choice of the competing airlines. In particular, network choices of airlines may result in higher prices on some transatlantic routes and if pre-liberalized domestic markets are competitive price reductions on domestic routes could be negligible. Another finding is that the opening of transatlantic markets mainly redistribute airlines' market shares and as a result the expected increase in passenger traffic may not be realized.

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The intention of this document is to discuss the deregulation of the telecommunications environment in South Africa, focusing specifically on the introduction of the Second Network Operator and its relationship with Telkom and the market. The aims of this research include an evaluation of whether or not competition can occur when Telkom is the provider of a portion of the fixed line equipment as well as a competitor to the Second Network Operator. In addition to this an evaluation will also be undertaken of whether or not the consumer will ultimately benefit from increased service levels, as well as decreased cost once the Second Network Operator is offering services to the consumer. The research methodology employed is that of Case Study Analysis. The reason being that this method allows for a large amount of relative data to be chosen for the study (using Purposive sampling techniques), and this can then be analysed on a subjective basis, using comparisons as well as models such as the PEST, and Porter's Five Forces. Ultimately the study recommends that without a strong regulator, deregulation is pointless as the incumbent provider is exceptionally powerful both financially and politically and will not hesitate to engage in unfair practices should it feel that those practices may benefit their position. To this end it is recommended that ICASA play an active role in the pricing of the local loop access as well as the pricing of interconnections between the parties. It further recommends that Neotel follow a strategy of strong customer focus as well as strong technological focus. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

One technique used to control the influx of renewable generation while maintaining competitive principles is a Request for Proposals (RFP). However, lack of transmission planning due to a disconnection between generation and transmission owners, difficulty in identifying viable projects, and high risk for proponents stand as obstacles to the goals of an RFP. This research proposes a procedure which minimizes the effect of these obstacles; meeting the purchaser requirements for low price and combining conventional planning concepts with feedback from competitive structures. The general features of the method include definition of generation limits and study area, expansion plan design, transmission cost evaluation, optimal selection of requested generation levels, and final selection of successful proponents. A case study using a real system in New Mexico demonstrates these concepts.

One technique used to control the influx of renewable generation while maintaining competitive principles is a Request for Proposals (RFP). However, lack of transmission planning due to a disconnection between generation and transmission owners, difficulty in identifying viable projects, and high risk for proponents stand as obstacles to the goals of an RFP. This research proposes a procedure which minimizes the effect of these obstacles; meeting the purchaser requirements for low price and combining conventional planning concepts with feedback from competitive structures. The general features of the method include definition of generation limits and study area, expansion plan design, transmission cost evaluation, optimal selection of requested generation levels, and final selection of successful proponents. A case study using a real system in New Mexico demonstrates these concepts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 194-210). / Microfiche. / xv, 210 leaves, bound 29 cm

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of deregulation on financial market efficiency in Sri Lanka. The concept of efficiency used here is due to Fama (1970) who defines an efficient market as one in which prices fully reflect all available information. Given the significant expansion of Sri Lanka???s financial markets in the post deregulation period, efficiency is investigated in the context of these markets. To this end, the study employs a number of standard tests for market efficiency including; the expectations hypothesis of the term structure, the Fisher hypothesis, uncovered interest parity, speculative efficiency, real interest rate equalization and tests of capital mobility. Although the overall results presented in this study suggest that Sri Lanka???s financial markets are not fully efficient, the evidence provides significant insight to the performance of these markets. The main policy lesson to be learnt from this analysis is that financial deregulation will not automatically promote market efficiency unless accompanied by positive policy action to reinforce the impact of these reforms. In conclusion therefore, the study makes a number of recommendations which could help to reinforce the impact of financial deregulation on market efficiency.