"Competition for the field" and pricing regulation: the case of the natural gas distribution in Italy

Journal title ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Author/s Francesco Gullì
Publishing Year 2015 Issue 2014/2 Language English
Pages 22 P. 21-42 File size 482 KB
DOI 10.3280/EFE2014-002002
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Recently, looking at the incoming tenders for the new territorial districts in Italy, the Italian energy authority approved the new regulatory regime for the natural gas distribution where the difference between the VIR (residual industrial value) and the RAB (regulatory assets based) is recognized only to the new entrant (disparity of treatment). This article demonstrates that this decision is sub-optimal for firms and consumers. Compared to the situation under parity of treatment (the difference VIR-RAB is recognized for both new entrant and incumbent), the authority’s choice implies distorted results (the less efficient firm would win the tender) and higher final prices for consumers.

Keywords: Competition, natural gas, regulation

Jel codes: L11, L51

  1. AEEGSI (2013). Criteri di determinazione del costo riconosciuto dei servizi di distribuzione e misura del gas per il quarto periodo di regolazione, DCO 56/2013/R/GAS.
  2. AEEGSI (2014a). Regolazione tariffaria dei servizi di distribuzione e misura del gas per la gestione d’ambito nel quarto periodo regolatorio, DCO 53/2014/R/GAS.
  3. AEEGSI (2014b). Regolazione tariffaria dei servizi di distribuzione e misura del gas per il period 2014-2019 per le gestioni d’ambito e alter dispsizioni in materia tariffaria, Deliberazione 367/2014, R/GAS.
  4. AGCM (2014). Proposte di riforma concorrenziale ai fini della legge annuale per il mercato e la concorrenza, Segnalazione AGCM, AS1117.
  5. Gulli F. (2009). Economie di scala e dimensione ottimale nella distribuzione del gas: una meta-analisi, Econmics an Policy of Energy and the Environment, 3, pp. 5-32.
  6. Gulli F. (2014). La proposta dellAEEGSI e la “scommessa” sulla concorrenza. Staffetta Quotidiana, 09/07.
  7. IBL (Istituto Bruno Leoni) (2014). A chi ha sarà dato? La distribuzione locale gas, il delta VIR/RAB e la concorrenza. IBL PolicyPaper, 17 aprile.

Francesco Gullì, "Competition for the field" and pricing regulation: the case of the natural gas distribution in Italy in "ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT" 2/2014, pp 21-42, DOI: 10.3280/EFE2014-002002