Regulatory reform in Colombia's electric utilities

Abstract

This paper analyses the porcess of regulatory reform in Colombia´s electric supply industry durint the nineties. In order to provide a compehensive view about the reform´s motivations the first part of the essay describes the key features in the development of the power sector, the institutional structure and the economic performance since the seventies that end up in a general power shortage in 1992. Afterwards, it discuses based on the evolution of some technical indicators the causes of the 1992 power cirsis. The second part emphasizes on the regulatory theory beneath the reform, the privatization process, the new regulatory institutions, and the evolution of the electric spot market