ABSTRACT
The preceding chapters highlight several areas in the electric power industry in which economic and technological dynamism have made the existing natural monopoly regulatory institutions and business models obsolete. A more dynamic model based on decentralized coordination can, and should, take their place. We can use the ideas in this work to think differently about regulation in the electric utility industry, to imagine and design regulatory institutions that are more focused on establishing preconditions for decentralized coordination and allowing innovation to occur. Institutions that do so focus primarily on transparent contract enforcement rules (including consumer protection rules), on information provision, and on reducing the transaction costs that prevent mutually beneficial exchange from occurring.1
