Rules and Regulations on Competition Rights in Electricity Markets: A Comparative Study

It is essential to enact restrictive laws and impose penalties for private sector participants when they play an important role in different sectors of production and trading of commodities. These laws and penalties reduce antitrust activities and protect participants against illegal activities. Therefore, the study and recognition of legal and economic issues related to the competition in different markets specially in some commodity markets which play crucial role in peoples’ lives is significantly important. Energy markets, particularly power markets are really important in humans’ lives and everyone must has access to enough sustainable energy to maintain a high standard of living.  In Iran, competition rights is a new topic that has been considered based on the Article 44 Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The study of competition rights experiences around the world and using them for designing and implementing efficient laws in Iran is very important. In this article, by adopting a legal and economical approach, we study and investigate principle issues of competition rights in Iran and other countries, particularly in power markets. Then, the main features of efficient organizations which are responsible for monitoring competition rights are mentioned. Finally, the competition rights challenges in Iran power market are investigated. This research also investigates some challenges in Iran power market including structural and legislation problems that should be solved with taking some steps in order to provide competitive environment for market participants. The results of this research demonstrate some structural and legislation problems of Iranian power market which highlights the importance of paying more attention to competiton rights. Establishment of the sectoral regulator in power industry not only resolves some drawbacks of current Iranian power market regulator but also leads to a comprehensive plan for Iranian power market reforms.