Passing value to customers: on the power of regulation in the industrial electricity supply chain

Abstract

Provides both a descriptive and an analytical understanding of the supply chain for industrial electricity. It explains which actors in the chain have power and how this impacts upon the process of value appropriation. There are three main elements. The first is a descriptive mapping of the supply chain based on key functional stages, resources and resource ownership. The second is a descriptive mapping of the corresponding value chain based on the revenues and gross profit margins typically being earned at each functional stage. The final element is a discussion of the power resources that determine the competitive dynamics, and by extension the appropriation of value, in the chain. Regulatory intervention by the state is identified as a key mediating factor in this case.