The Austrian and Upper Austrian electricity market and its restructuring affected by the liberalization based on the 'Elektrizitaetswirtschafts- und organisationsgesetz' (1999) as well as the 'Energieliberalisierungsgesetz' (2000)

After an overview about the basics of electricity the thesis covers the history of the electricity market in Upper Austria from the very beginning including parallels to national activities and trends in this field. The historical part is therefore divided into three chapters: the development of the electricity supply in Austria, Upper Austria and Linz. In the following chapter the thesis discusses the legal basis for the structure of Austria' electricity market as well as the latest laws dealing with the liberalization of Austria' electricity market as well as the European legislative conditions regulating the liberalization of the European electricity market. The thesis furthermore deals with the effects on customers as well as on the suppliers that are yet affected by the ongoing liberalization in the various customer segments. It also covers the expected affects on Austria' private customers that will occur by the complete deregulation that starts in October 2001. The thesis covers also the actual strategic plans of Austria' public owned suppliers in the effort to strengthen their market positions. In contrary to the deregulated telecom market the electricity markets won' grow. Therefore, competition on the electricity market will get much harder. Suppliers will strain for cooperation and mergers in order to face this competition, which is underlined in this part of the thesis. The fourth chapter covers the ecological items of electricity production and consumption. It therefore deals with renewable and nuclear energy sources and their contributions to a sustainable economy. (author)