Author Description

The Nordic Council of Ministers' Energy Research Committee started the research programme on "Energy and Society" in 1991. The aim was to both increase knowledge of, and contribute to the exchange of knowledge about, the functioning of the Nordic energy markets among academics, bureaucrats and politicians in the Nordic countries. Historically, the electricity production, transmission and distribution sectors have been heavily regulated in the Western world. During the last five years, important experiences with a deregulated electricity sector have also been gained in the US, Britain and Norway. The European Community has put the deregulation of their internal electricity market on the agenda. Sweden and Finland are both supposed to deregulate their electricity market in 1995. The "Energy and Society Programme" invited many distinguished professionals to a conference in Copenhagen in 1994 to discuss the deregulation of electricity markets. The agenda included both theoretical aspects and experiences in the US, Britain and Norway so far. The papers from this conference are presented in this volume.