Editing Energy liberalisation (section)

==Problems with liberalisation==
Liberalisation of electricity tends to substantially benefit large consumers (mainly industrial users), but benefits for domestic consumers compared with a public monopoly or a regulated private monopoly are questionable, as liberalisation has been shown to pass on supply costs onto consumers.<ref name=":4">{{cite web |title=
Electricity liberalisation in Britain: the quest for a satisfactory wholesale market design |url=http://www.uea.ac.uk/~e680/energy/energy_links/electricity/D13.2_Newbery.pdf |publisher=University of East Anglia |accessdate=27 October 2015 |author=David Newbery}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title = Energy liberalisation leads to higher prices|url = http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/29869d28-7fe1-11dc-b075-0000779fd2ac.html|newspaper = [[Financial Times]]|date = 2007-10-21|access-date = 2015-10-28|issn = 0307-1766|first = Philip|last = Wright}}</ref> There are also doubts over whether the system can ensure long-term security of supply through providing sufficient incentives to begin building generation capacity in time for when it is needed, an issue which has started to plague Britain in the mid-2010s as spare capacity has decreased significantly to just over 1.2 percent in 2015.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-33527967 |title=Electricity blackouts risk up, says National Grid |accessdate=27 October 2015 |author=John Moylan |publisher=[[British Broadcasting Corporation]] |date=July 2015}}</ref>

Furthermore, the experience of electricity liberalisation in [[developing countries]] has proven problematic, as many large multinationals withdrew support for power plant construction projects in the start of the 21st century, leaving countries such as Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Uganda to pick up the bill for the expansion of their electric networks.<ref name=thomas2004>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120717040912/http://www.psiru.org/reports/2004-09-E-WEC.doc Electricity liberalisation: The beginning of the end.] Steve Thomas, PRSIRU, Sep 2004 (archived on 17 July 2012)</ref> The privatisation of electricity favoured by liberal economists mirroring the British model have also led to increased expenditure on advertising and power switching incentives for consumers.<ref name="thomas2004" />

The nature of the [[natural monopoly]] coming from electricity generation is also an issue which has gone unaddressed. Because of the monopolistic competition inherent to the energy market, there are significant issues with [[collusion]] by firms to raise prices.<ref name=":3" /> To prevent these issues as well as those associated with direct intervention to build new generation capacity, governments have had to step in to further regulate and build such capacity directly,<ref name="thomas2004" /><ref name=":3" /> effectively defeating the point of liberalisation. These issues have been compounded with growing geopolitical instability in Eastern Europe and [[Ukraine–European Union relations|concerns]] over gas pipelines in Ukraine.<ref name=":3" />