Energy Network Regulation in the Nordics : Things Going South?

The theory of incentive regulation has guided the evolution of regulatory regimes for energy networks across Europe for most of the 2000s. Recent examples of regulatory reform, however, show a worrying trend towards neglect of these principles. This article critically discusses two recent examples for regulatory reform in the Nordics against the background of established regulatory principles. We conclude that potentially adverse effects of the changes implemented and envisaged receive too little attention. To inform future reform processes, we propose an intuitive 7-step framework for evaluating regulatory reform aimed at rebalancing incentive-based regulatory frameworks