Security of Electricity Supply in Competitive Environment

In recent years a series of unusual events in electricity systems happened. Although the immediate causes of the events were different, some underlying structural problems came up to our sight. In this paper, several typical blackout events were examined first and four major structural problems that jeopardize the security of electricity supply identified. Then two distinguish institutional frameworks for security of electricity supply in UK and in USA were compared and the strength and weakness between them analyzed. We concluded that security of supply favors simple clear institutional framework and it is important for governments to monitor reliability, including how their own actions may influence market behaviors. Finally two key factors that hinder the investment are discussed and Spanish market is taken as a case