Competition at the Grid Edge: Innovation and Antitrust Law in the Electricity Sector
Competition at the Grid Edge: Innovation and Antitrust Law in the Electricity Sector
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电网边缘的竞争：电力行业的创新和反垄断法
DOI：
10.2139/ssrn.2765502
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发表时间：
2016
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
M. Wara
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
M. Wara
分布式能源技术的出现，最引人注目的是分布式太阳能，对电力公用事业行业构成了竞争威胁。在这里，我对美国电力公用事业行业在过去三年中对这一威胁的监管反应进行了全面评估。美国各地的电力公用事业公司都在要求其公用事业委员会改变费率结构，根据具体情况，这些结构可能会减少对分布式能源资源的交叉补贴，也可能会为创新能源技术和商业模式设置更高的准入门槛。通常，根据国家行动豁免权和提起诉讼的费率原则，公用事业公司的行为不受反垄断审查。我认为，在对分布式能源的公用事业响应的情况下，情况可能并非如此。由于风险的存在，电力公用事业公司及其监管委员会都需要做出更大努力来评估费率变化的竞争影响--迄今为止，诉讼程序基本上没有考虑这一点。通过这样做，他们将确保社会对更清洁、更具创新性、更具生产力的能源行业的利益得到保护，同时将自己在反垄断法规下承担责任的风险降至最低。
The advent of distributed energy technologies, most notably, distributed solar energy, poses a competitive threat to the electric utility industry. Here I provide a comprehensive assessment of the U.S. electric utility industry's regulatory response to this threat over the past three years. Electric utilities across the United States are asking their Public Utility Commissions for changes in rate structures that, depending on their details, may either reduce cross-subsidies to distributed energy resources or may be erecting much higher barriers to entry for innovative energy technologies and business models. Usually, a utility's actions are exempt from antitrust scrutiny under the State Action Immunity and Filed Rate doctrines. I argue that in the case of the utility response to distributed energy, this may not be the case. Because the risk exists, both electric utilities and their overseeing commissions need to make much greater efforts to evaluate the competitive impacts of changes in rates - a consideration that is largely absent from the proceedings to date. By doing so, they will both ensure that society’s interest in a cleaner, more innovative, more productive energy sector is protected and at the same time minimize their own risks of liability under the antitrust statutes.