The Divine Comedy

1st July 2006
By Ben Tait

If patience is a virtue, European energy regulators are saints. Reform of the power industry at the European Union level was first mooted in the early 1990s. The idea met plenty of resistance, but by the middle of the decade it had been worn down by the tenor of the times and the practical example of more or less successful reforms in the Nordic and British power industries.

The first European Union electricity directive was duly passed in 1996. It freed the largest consumers acr…