Market Power in Deregulated Power System

Abstract

In today's competitive market, deregulation of power industry is inevitable. The aim of deregulating the power markets is to bring competition into them and thereby make them more economically efficient. In an economically efficient market, no consumer or producer has the ability to impact on prices by itself or by collaborating with any other participant. However, the electricity wholesale market is not a perfect market and the potential for market power exploitation is an issue. Sometimes private companies collaborate with each other to get more profit, driving the prices to a higher level and thus acquiring a market power which is an anti-competitive practice. Thus, market power is the capability of a seller or a group of sellers to profitably maintain the prices above a competitive level and control the total output for a noteworthy period of time.