World Trade Law and the Emergence of International Electricity Markets

The expansion of cross-border power transmission infrastructures and the regional integration of electricity markets are accelerating on several continents. The internationalization of trade in electric energy is embedded in an even greater transformation: the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies and the race to net zero emissions. Against this backdrop, this book provides a comprehensive examination of the regulatory framework that governs the established and newly emerging electricity trading relations.

Taking the technical and economic foundations as a starting point and thoroughly examining current developments on four continents, the book provides a global perspective on the state of the art in electricity market integration. in doing so, it focuses on the most relevant issues including transit of electricity, quantitative restrictions, market foreclosure and anti-competitive practices employed by the actors on electricity markets. In turn, the book carefully analyzes the regulatory framework provided by the WTO Agreements, the Energy Charter Treaty and other relevant preferential trade agreements. In its closing section, it moves beyond the applicable legal architecture to make concrete proposals on the future design of global trade rules specifically tailored to the electricity sector, which could provide a more reliable and transparent framework for the multilateral regulation of electricity trade.

Part 1: Setting the Scene: The Technical and Regulatory Foundations and the Emergence of International Electricity Markets.- Introduction.- Technical Aspects of Electricity Systems.- Regulatory and Commercial Aspects of the Electricity Sector.- The Advent of International Electricity Trade.- Final Conclusions to Part 1.- Part 2: World Trade Law and the Regulation of Electricity Trade.- Introduction.- WTO Law and the Regulation of Electricity Trade.- The Energy Charter Treaty and the Regulation of Electricity Trade.- The Relationship between the ECT and the WTO Agreements.- Electricity in other Preferential Trade Agreements.- Final Conclusions to Part 2.- Part 3: Barriers to Electricity Trade and the Role of World Trade Law.- Introduction.- A Typology of International Trade Issues in the Electricity Sector.- Market Structure as an Impediment to International Trade in Electricity: Vertical Integration, Monopolies and State Ownership.- Interlude: The Role of Private Actors in the Electricity Sector and the Application of WTO Law.- Quantitative Import and Export Restrictions.- Transit of Electricity.- Final Conclusions to Part 3.- Part 4: Towards a Coherent Regulatory Framework for International Electricity Trade.- Introduction.- An Integrated Approach for the Energy Sector or Electricity-Specific Rules?.- Building Blocks of a Multilateral Regulatory Regime for Electricity Trade.- Finding the Right Forum: Where Should Electricity-Specific Trade Rules be Defined?.- Final Conclusions to Part 4.- General Conclusions.

Christopher Frey combines academic and practical experience in the field of international energy law and regulation. He has been working as a regulatory and policy advisor in the energy sector for several years and was previously an assistant to the chairman of the environmental committee in the European Parliament. He holds an LL.B. degree from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and an LL.M. from Europa-Institut, Saarland University (Germany) where he specialized in EU Law and International Trade Law. While pursuing his doctoral dissertation he worked as a researcher and lecturer at the Universities of Dresden, Hamburg and Canterbury (NZ).