PRIVATISATION, COMPETITION AND REGULATION IN THE SCOTTISH ELECTRICITY INDUSTRY

This paper analyses the experience of the privatised electricity industry in Scotland. The retention of vertical integration in Scotland has led to a number of different features in the regulation of the industry in Scotland and England and Wales. It has also led to a different pattern of development of competition. Although regulation and price competition appear to have operated to the benefit of consumers thus far, the Scottish system is as yet untested in its ability to cope with significant new entry.