ABSTRACT
Until recently, the electricity sector was typically vertically integrated with a captive franchise market, either state-owned or under regulated private ownership. Investments in generation and transmission were chosen (in theory) to deliver the least-cost expansion plan, financed by low-cost borrowing that was underwritten by the franchise revenue base. The past decade has seen a dramatic change in views of how the electricity sector should be owned, organized and regulated. Today, many of these monopolies have been broken up, and the electricity industry in a large number of countries has been reorganized around markets.
