Deregulation of electricity market and drivers of demand for electrical energy in industry

This paper investigates deregulation of electricity market focusing on electricity prices and drivers of demand for electrical energy in industry in Slovenia. The patterns in evolution of real electricity price developments and the three main components of the electricity price are calculated: liberalized market share for purchased electricity price, regulated infrastructure share for use of electricity network grids and mandatory state charges in the sale of electricity (duty, excise duty and value-added tax). To calculate the real value of electricity prices, producer price index of industrial commodities for electricity prices in industry is used as deflator and implicit deflator of gross domestic product for the size of the economy. In the empirical econometric part is used regression analysis for the amount electricity consumption in the industry depending on the real gross domestic product, direct and cross-price elasticity for natural gas prices in the industry. The results confirmed volatility in real electricity price developments with their increasing tendency and the increasing share of different taxes and state charges in the electricity prices for industry. Demand for electrical energy in industry is positively associated with gross domestic product and price of natural gas as substitute for electrical energy in industry use, and negatively associated with prices of electrical energy for industry.