The report surveys the situation regarding deregulation and privatisation of the electricity supply industry in every country.

The information is presented in a summary table, ?The World Survey of Privatisation and Deregulation? and outlined in individual sections, one for each country in the world, describing the present situation and identifying future developments.

After the significant developments of 2004, market liberalisation continues to be extremely varied and it changes from year to year. Market liberalisation is well advanced in some countries and it has been a remarkable success, in other markets it has been less successful. The most systematic deregulation is taking in place in Europe, initiated by the EU and monitored with annual benchmarking reports. The ABS Electricity Deregulation Report surveys these countries in detail and presents a comparative report of their development towards the deregulation and privatisation targets.

Other regions of the world are less systematic in their approach and without a central political authority such as the EU, their development is determined entirely by national governments. Some are deregulating quickly, many are slow and some have not deregulated at all. The effects of the energy crisis in California have had an impact on some countries, which have put plans on hold. These are identified and their positions discussed.

The report describes all the vital aspects of the new electricity markets:

• Degree of market opening at generation and retail level
• Extent of unbundling of generation, transmission and distribution
• Network access
• Concentration of market power and its effect on competition?.
• Type of regulatory authority
• Price regulation
• Ownership of the ESI and privatisation
• And many more details of the market structure

The report will enable the reader to:

• Understand the fundamental differences from nation to nation and region to region
• The far reaching impact of deregulation, both globally on the ESI and nationally
• The continuing changes and developments
• Future directions of market liberalisation
• This report is unique in its global coverage