Description: Utility Regulators : Roles and Responsibilities

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Utility Regulators : Roles and Responsibilities

There are three main issues in defining a utility regulator's role: the scope of its coverage, its role in relation to ministers, and its role in relation to other regulatory entities such as the competition agency or agencies dealing with env...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Smith, Warrick
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2012
Subjects:	TARIFFS GAS UTILITIES INDUSTRY TELECOMMUNICATIONS ANTICOMPETITIVE CONDUCT ANTITRUST ANTITRUST REGULATION CIVIL SERVICE CUSTOMER SERVICE STANDARDS ECONOMIC REGULATION ECONOMIES OF SCALE ECONOMISTS GAS INFLATION INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS MARKET POWER MONOPOLY MONOPOLY POWER NONCOMPLIANCE POWER UTILITIES PRIVATIZATION QUALITY STANDARDS REGULATOR REGULATORS REGULATORY AGENCIES REGULATORY AGENCY REGULATORY OBJECTIVES SECTOR RESTRUCTURING TAXATION TRADEOFFS TRANSPORT UTILITY REGULATION YIELDS
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/1997/10/693109/utility-regulators-roles-responsibilities http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11571

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Summary:	There are three main issues in defining a utility regulator's role: the scope of its coverage, its role in relation to ministers, and its role in relation to other regulatory entities such as the competition agency or agencies dealing with environment or health and safety. The author makes a case for multi-industry agencies covering everything from power to water to transport. Multi-industry agencies have several advantages that are especially important for developing countries. They allow the pooling of scarce expertise. They reduce the risk of industry and political capture. They reduce the risk of inconsistency in regulatory approaches across sectors. And they help to deal with the blurring of industry boundaries as utilities enter one another's markets (as when power utilities enter telecommunications, and water and power utilities merge).