2002年2月国务院下发《电力体制改革方案》明确指出了电力体制改革方案的总体目标:即打破垄断,引入竞争,提高效率,降低成本,健全电价机制,优化资源配置,促进电力发展,推进全国联网,构建政府监管下的政企分开、公平竞争、开放有序、健康发展的电力市场体系。9年过去了,虽然在发电侧已逐步引入了竞争机制,但在输电、配电和售电环节的垄断仍顽固地存在。电力产业的行政性垄断仍未被触及,自然垄断和行政垄断让公司治理机制显得很孱弱。自19世纪英国经济学家约翰·穆勒第一次提出自然垄断的概念开始,经济学家对自然垄断的认识也不断变化。垄断所带来的社会福利损失及其对消费权益的侵害,逐渐成为人们所关注的焦点。从上世纪中晚期,特别是90年代初期以来,许多国家和地区先后进行了电力工业市场化改革。除非洲和亚洲部分国家,世界上大多数国家都已经或正在进行电力工业的市场化改革。电力市场化改革已经成为一种世界性潮流。在潮流中,我们需要摸着石头过河,本期选取几个电力市场化改革国家的案例与读者分享。 In February 2002, the State Council issued the “Electric Power System Reform Plan” that clearly pointed out the overall objectives of the power system reform program: to break the monopoly, introduce competition, improve efficiency, reduce costs, improve the electricity tariff mechanism, optimize the allocation of resources and promote the development of electric power and promote National networking, construction of government under the supervision of the separation of government and enterprises, fair competition, open and orderly and healthy development of the electricity market system. Nine years have passed. Although a competition mechanism has gradually been introduced on the power generation side, monopolies in transmission, distribution and sale of electricity still persist. The administrative monopoly of the power industry has not been touched yet. Natural monopolies and administrative monopolies make the corporate governance mechanism weak. Since the concept of natural monopoly was first proposed by British economist John Mueller in the 19th century, economists’ understanding of natural monopolies has also been changing. The loss of social welfare brought by monopoly and its infringement on the rights and interests of consumers have gradually become the focus of attention. Since the middle and late of the last century, especially since the early 1990s, many countries and regions have carried out marketization reforms in the power industry. With the exception of parts of Africa and Asia, the majority of countries in the world have or are undergoing market-based reforms in the power industry. Market-oriented electricity reform has become a worldwide trend. In the trend, we need to feel the stones across the river. In this issue, we selected several cases of power market reform countries to share with readers.