Pricing of electricity in a time of change - some key issues

The paper covers four topics: (I) what does full cost coverage mean in the Eastern European power sector, (II) LRMC (Long Run Marginal Cost) pricing in regulated utilities versus free market prices; (III) limits to the internalization of external costs in fuel pricing, (IV) pricing of IPPs (Independent Power Producer). The paper argues that the tariff which allows full cost coverage in the Eastern European power sector should be defined as the minimum tariff which allows 30% self-financing of investments and a rate of return of at least 5% on invested assets. The appropriate level of self-financing relates to the appropriate capital structure of the company; the rate of return to the ability to attract finance in the long run. During the last twenty years there has been general consensus among power economists that the application of the LRMC pricing principle for the setting of tariffs was the best principle to ensure efficiency on both the demand as well as the supply side. In free markets involving TPA (Third Party Access) and spot markets, that principle can no longer be applied. In times of scarcity, prices will be above LMRC; in times of surplus capacity below LRMC. Economists have argued for years that external costs and benefits have to be ''internalized'' in tariffs and prices in order to provide consumers and investors with the right pricing principles