A review of electricity industry restructuring in Australia

The Australian electricity industry restructuring process involves functional separation, corporatisation and, in some cases, privatization of the pre-existing state-owned supply authorities. The end point will be, for the southern and eastern states, a multi-region 'National Electricity Market' (NEM) which is regulated at the federal government level, and retail electricity markets which are implemented and regulated at the state government level. This paper provides an overview of the Australian electricity industry restructuring process and then focuses on the performance of the NEM and its precursors, the NSW and Victorian state markets. Recent criticisms of the restructuring process are reviewed and conclusions are drawn about progress to date and future prospects. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.