Course # 36925 Section Number 1 Day(s) W- F Time(s) 9:00am-11:50am Term Spring 2025 Specialization Energy & Environmental Policy Markets & Regulation Syllabus Syllabus 3/24/25 In many other countries, government owns and operates utilities as a public service. The United States largely has chosen a different path, especially with respect to energy utilities: permitting private companies to provide these essential services, subject to extensive regulation. For many decades, exclusive monopolies dominated the space. The last several decades have seen the rise of competition in both the wholesale and retail space. But this shift has taken hold in only parts of the United States, while in other jurisdictions consumers still do not have the right to choose their supplier and the transmission and even the generation of power remains largely monopolized. The result has been a patchwork that evinces little uniform national policy, and still is largely regulated by state governments despite the regional, interstate characteristics of energy. This course explores the forms and institutions of utility regulation in the United States, with a focus on electricity. It provides a critical introduction to the design of electricity markets that were created in the twentieth century and iterated upon ever since. Along the way, students will hear first hand from practitioners and experts as guest lecturers, while learning how a once mundane field has become the cutting edge of emergent technologies and social mandates like decarbonization. Notes This class will meet W/F every other week. Class will meet on the following dates: March 26th and 28th, April 9th and 11th, April 23rd and 25th, May 7th and 9th. Quarter Title Instructor Day(s) Time(s) Syllabus Spring 2025 Utilities and Electricity Markets: Regulation in the United States Kent Chandler Wednesday, Friday 9:00am-11:50am Syllabus Recent News More news Provost Katherine Baicker Honored with 2025 William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research Wed., May 28, 2025 Where Passion Meets Policy: The Story of Samantha Kent, AM’20 Tue., May 27, 2025 Student Profile: Sophie Lara, MACRM Class of 2027 Tue., May 20, 2025 Upcoming Events More events Get to Know Harris! A Virtual Information Session Thu., May 29, 2025 | 8:30 AM Get to Know Harris! Public Sector Scholarship Fri., May 30, 2025 | 12:00 PM Masterclass with Navin Kumar Tue., June 03, 2025 | 5:00 PM
January 22, 2025 Q&A: Professor Ryan Kellogg on "The End of Oil" and the Future of the Global Energy Market
October 07, 2024 Q&A: New Harris Economist Hyuk-soo Kwon Discusses EVs, Batteries, and Environmental Policy Trade-Offs