[en] Barriers to competitive supplier entry such as California's wholesale-price pass-through model can provide an almost insurmountable barrier to effective retail competition. The telecommunications, airline, and software industries provide lessons--positive and negative--on how creating competitive wholesale markets is insufficient to bring the benefits of competition to smaller consumers

[en] The findings of the review undertaken by PA Consulting Group on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs into the feasibility of accelerating electricity and gas market liberalisation in the Netherlands are set out. The main purpose of the review was to assess the technical and organisational requirements for the two markets and to consider the time required to deliver them. The chosen market models for electricity and gas liberalisation, as set out in the Electricity Act and the draft Gas Act, were to be taken as given. A review of the market models chosen and consideration of how the markets should be delivered were excluded from the study. The results of this review have been used by the Ministry of Economic Affairs as input into the decision making process regarding the revised opening dates for the electricity and gas markets for both medium size and small customers. The report includes: A description of the market models for electricity and gas; The technical and organisational requirements and progress to date; The time required to deliver each of the two markets; and The benefits and disadvantages of synchronising gas and electricity market openings and recommended timescales