Utilities Management

Recommended Prerequisites

NA

Teaching Methods

Classroom interaction:

- Presentation of the themes promoting debate (student-student and student-teacher).

- Solving (by students, individually or in small groups, or by the teacher) of cases that illustrate the practical relevance of the themes.

- Conference lectures with invited expert speakers (regulatory agents, market players, industry).

- Role-playing.

The presentation of the themes and the discussion of cases emphasize the motivation of the students for studying the themes being addressed, by using concrete examples).

Learning Outcomes

Students should have a global and current knowledge of the functioning of public utility sectors structured in the form of network, more commonly disclosed as network utilities, (energy, water, telecommunications, transport, among others) that have undergone profound transformations, either at the institutional or technological level. Students are expected to understand the new political and economic and financial orientations that have radically changed the role of the public sector in the economy. On the other hand, the large and rapid technological change, with consequences on the forms of market and the way economic subjects operate, require new skills from companies involved in these sectors of activities that will be transmitted to students.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

Economic framework of network utilities management. Definition of public service, universal service and service of general interest. Main characteristics of sectoral transformation. The role of sectoral economic regulation. Liberalization process: motivations and consequences.

Study of various sectors: energy, water, telecommunications, postal service, transport, etc. International experience, community policy and Portuguese specificity. Conditions of the choice of investment in network utilities. New forms of market and new commodities: risk and its quantification. The cost of capital of regulated companies.

Head Lecturer(s)

Nuno Miguel dos Santos Carvalho Figueiredo

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Research work: 30.0%
Synthesis work: 70.0%

Bibliography

Bunn, D. (ed) (2004), Modelling prices in competitive electricity markets, Wiley Finance, John Wiley & Sons.

Newbery, D., (2000), Privatization, Restructuring, and Regulation of Network Utilities, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Silva, Patrícia Pereira da, (2007), O sector da Energia Eléctrica na União Europeia – evolução e perspectivas (The electricity supply industry in the European Union, in portuguese), Coimbra University Press, Coimbra.

Zweifel, Peter; Praktiknjo, Aaron ; Erdmann, Georg. Energy economics : theory and applications Berlin : Springer, 2017 [620.9 ZWE].

ìSubhes C. Bhattacharyya, Energy Economics : Concepts, Issues, Markets and Governance. London, England : Springer. 2019.

Cretì, Anna. Cambridge, Economics of electricity : markets, competitions and rules Cambridge University Press, 2019 .[620.9 CRE].

https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/

https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics

https://ec.europa.eu/info/topics/energy_en