Handbook on Electricity Markets

This chapter puts in perspective the tremendous changes undertaken by power sectors around the world since thirty years. These changes started with restructuring and the introduction of competition, framed by market designs and regulatory reforms, in previously monopolistic industries. They expand today to deep technological innovations, both on the supply side (as renewables) and the demand side (as demand response, electric vehicles and storage). They include novel types of trade and markets, made possible by a new wave of digital innovations, which in turn allow responding more accurately to the policy push at the world level toward deep decarbonisation and net zero emissions by 2050.