Deregulation and restructuring of the global electricity supply industry and its impact upon power plant suppliers

This paper analyses the deregulation and restructuring of the global electricity supply industry and its impact upon fuel usage, generation technologies and suppliers of power plant. Deregulation encouraged the growth of new independent power producers whose business requirements transformed the power plant industry. The plant suppliers had to develop new capabilities and services to compete in the global market. Economies of scale and scope became crucial given the cost of developing the new technologies and providing the services required by the operators. This led to the global consolidation of the power plant industry because only large-integrated power engineering companies had the necessary resources and capabilities to compete in the new global environment. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.