Retail prices in the Italian electricity market

In order to give an extensive review on the retail prices in the Italian electricity market, this work first deals with the organization of electricity markets by explaining the evolutionary path followed in the last century by the industry. After introducing four possible organizational forms (monopoly, single buyer, wholesale and retail competition) we analyse the Italian market organization and we explain how electricity is traded and how the PUN (the national price) is calculated. In the second part a review on the theory behind rate formulations will be presented and we will study rate levels in the Italian market. A study based on usage paths will investigate the differences between rates in the liberalized market and the regulated one.