Restructuring of Electric Power Sector: The Transition from Monopoly to Competitive Market Conditions

The electric power sector is facing comprehensive changes reflected in the reorganization of the entire market, in the economic relations management and the technical and technological functioning of companies. The changes are in fact a consequence of various restructuring processes in the electric power sector, which are parallelly unfolding depending on the course and dynamics of the structural reforms implementation. In the electric power industry, these processes primarily involve liberalization, namely, opening the market to all business entities, and thus introducing competition to the electricity power market. The establishment of competition in the electric power industry is facilitated by the process of vertical unbundling of electric power activities, which can be divided into market-oriented and regulated activities. The purpose of this paper is to present the structural reforms and processes of restructuring the electric power industry which is transforming from monopoly market structures to competitive market conditions