Changes in European Energy Markets: What the Evidence Tells Us?

• Author: Jamasb, Tooraj

Changes in European Energy Markets: What the Evidence Tells Us? by Felicetta Iovinno and Nicholas Tsitsianis (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2020), 192 pages, ISBN 978-1-83909-110-0 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-83909-107-0 (online), 978-1-83909-109-4 (ebook)

One again since the liberalisation of the energy markets in the 1990s, the European energy market is on the verge of another major transformation, and this is taking place at a fast pace. The focus of the policies towards the sector has, on balance, gradually shifted from seeking efficiency improvement towards sustainability priorities. This change has recently been strengthened further with a focus on decarbonisation of the energy sector by 2050 and green transition of the economy.

The pursuit of the sustainability objectives will require many new technologies, policies, and regulatory frameworks. In the coming years, there will be a need for many books on the new energy sector about to evolve.

The title of the present book can lead a reader to believe that it is indeed about the current and challenges of the European energy markets. However, a closer inspection reveals that, in the light of the recent developments in the electricity market, the book appears backward looking at changes that soon will belong to the recent past. In this regard, the timing is perhaps a shortcoming of the book.

This book is relatively short and is made up of five chapters with less than 170 pages of text. The structure of the book and the sequence of the chapters appear somewhat unusual. The reviews of the individual chapters in the following will point this out. It suffices here to mention that it reminds us of a collection of papers or a thesis that has not been sufficiently adapted to book format. Most of the chapters contain footnotes that imply that some parts of them are, while being the result of collaborative work, can be attributed to one of the authors of the book. This is fine, but it would be helpful to name the co-authors of these collaborative works. The book is not predominantly focused on the wider European energy markets as the title suggests with Chapter 1 being the main exception.

Chapter 1 presents an informative overview of the liberalisation process of the European energy sectors. It reviews the generic power sector reform model in detail. The coverage of the four EU directives concerning the energy markets in this chapter will be rather useful for readers who look for accessible summaries of...